[x-pubpol] SABAM Vs Netlog - Another Important Ruling For Fundamental Rights

[Joly MacFie]

http://www.edri.org/sabam_netlog_win

SABAM Vs Netlog - Another Important Ruling For Fundamental Rights

16 February, 2012 » Notice & take-down | Privacy | Copyright | Freedom
of speech | Intellectual Property Enforcement | Collecting societies

SABAM (Société Belge des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs), the
Belgian collecting society for music royalties, is in the spotlight
again. A few months after the Scarlet/SABAM case, the Court of Justice
of the European Union (CJEU) has released a new decision on the
legality of filtering systems on the Internet, this time with regard
to filtering of content stored on web services.

Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that a
social network “cannot be obliged to install a general filtering
system, covering all its users, in order to prevent the unlawful use
of musical and audio-visual work”.

SABAM brought the social network Netlog to court to impose an
injunction requiring the installation of filtering systems aimed at
the prevention of infringements committed by its Belgian members
(around 2 million consumers) on its website.

A social network is a set of online communication tools that allow the
creation and exchange of user-generated content. Netlog is an online
platform, where members can create their own webpage with a blog,
pictures, playlists, videos… and as such considered as a social
network, and a hosting provider. SABAM asked the Belgian Court to
impose a penalty payment of 1000 €/day if the injunction was not
respected. Much user-generated content re-works copyrighted material
to produce new creations, making assessments of legality particularly
difficult and particularly inappropriate for automatic filtering
systems.

On 10 July 2010, the Brussels Court of First Instance denied the
penalty payment request and submitted a question for preliminary
ruling. The Court of First Instance asked the European Court whether
or not a national judge may issue an injunction against a hosting
service provider to filter most of the information stored on its
servers in order to identify electronic files containing musical,
cinematographic or audio-visual work, and subsequently to block the
exchange of such files. The injunction that SABAM requested covered
all Netlog customers, in abstracto and as a preventive measure.

In today’s decision, the Court decided that it is against European law
to order such a measure. The generality and broadness of such an
injunction is against freedom of communication, privacy rights and
freedom to conduct business.

FAQ

Is this a new win for fundamental freedoms

Yes

Particularly now, in a political climate where the foundations of the
current Internet are at stake, the European judges have re-emphasised
the importance of not overburdening communication tools with
restrictive technologies. This is crucial to protect the fundamental
rights value of the Internet as well as its economic significance.
For the second time in a just a few months, thanks to actions taken by
SABAM have led the CJEU to underline the importance of an open and
free Internet and the respect for fundamental freedoms, such as the
freedom to,freedom of communication privacy and the freedom to conduct
business.

<snip>

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