[A2k] IHT: EU ruling deals setback to copyright holders

[Vera Franz]

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Below the IHT article. And here's a slashdot post:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=3D08/01/29/2025257[1]
*
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/29/technology/share.php[2]
EU ruling deals setback to copyright holders
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

BRUSSELS: Record labels and film studios cannot demand that telecommunicati=
ons
companies hand over the names and addresses of people suspected of breaking
European copyright rules by swapping illegal downloads, the European Union'=
s
top court ruled Tuesday.

But EU nations could - if they wished - introduce rules to oblige companies=
 to
hand over personal data in similar cases, the European Court of Justice sai=
d.

The court upheld the right of the Spanish company Telef=F3nica to refuse to=
 hand
over information that would identify people who had used a peer-to-peer
file-sharing tool, Kazaa, to distribute copyrighted material owned by
Promusicae, a Spanish nonprofit group of film and music producers.

EU law does not require governments to protect copyright by forcing compani=
es
to disclose personal data in civil litigation, the court, which is based in
Luxembourg, ruled.

Governments could draft national rules to change this but they would then h=
ave
to balance the right to privacy against property rights, a court statement
said. Any such change "cannot however affect the requirements of the
protection of personal data," it added.

The ruling "raises the question of the need to reconcile the requirements o=
f
the protection of different fundamental rights, namely the right to respect
for private life on the one hand and the rights to protection of property a=
nd
to an effective remedy on the other," the court said.

A Spanish court had asked the European court for guidance on the case after
Promusicae complained of Telef=F3nica's refusal to hand over data that woul=
d
identify the users of computer addresses linked to illegal downloads.

Telef=F3nica argued that Spanish law allowed the disclosure of personal dat=
a
only for criminal prosecutions or matters of public security and national
defense.

The European branch of the Motion Picture Association, which represents
American film studios, including Universal, Walt Disney, and Paramount, sai=
d
it welcomed the ruling as balanced, because the court had upheld copyright =
as
a fundamental right alongside the right to privacy.

Millions of people use file-sharing sites to download both legal and illega=
l
copies of albums, films, TV episodes, computer programs and books.

The music industry has largely shunned file sharing, preferring to use digi=
tal
tools that restrict the ways songs can be copied and played.

The court's decision "is not bad news for telecom companies, it's bad news =
for
rights holders," said Quentin Archer, a partner at Lovells, a law firm in
London, who specializes in intellectual property and privacy law. "It makes=
 it
clear that there's no harmonization of community law in this field and that
the relative community directives are vague in how they treat rights of
privacy and rights of property."

The ruling Tuesday may have ramifications throughout Europe. A Belgian cour=
t
in June ordered an Internet service provider, Scarlet Belgie, to halt illeg=
al
file sharing on its network by installing technology to block or filter
file-sharing material. Scarlet is appealing. Qtrax start-up goes off track

Qtrax, a distributor of Internet file-swapping software has postponed the
start of a free online music service until it can complete music licensing
deals, The Associated Press reported from Cannes.

The company, Qtrax, had promised that its music service, scheduled to start
Monday, would offer unlimited, advertising-supported music downloads with t=
he
blessing of the major recording companies. But Warner Music Group and other
record labels said they had not authorized the company to distribute their
artists' music.

Qtrax said the delay would be for a "short time."

--
Vera Franz
Program Manager
Information Program
<www.soros.org/ip[3]>
Open Society Foundation
100, Cambridge Grove
London W6 0LE
phone +44 20 7031 0219
fax +44 20 7031 0247

=3D=3D=3DReferences:=3D=3D=3D
  1. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=3D08/01/29/2025257
  2. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/29/technology/share.php
  3. http://www.soros.org/ip