EU privacy fetish protects file-sharers

No one really likes the record companies anyway:

European Union countries can refuse to disclose names of file sharers on the Internet in civil cases, the EU’s top court said on Tuesday in a blow to copyright holders trying to fight digital piracy.

The European Court of Justice ruled on a dispute between Spanish music rights holders association Promusicae and Spain’s top telecoms operator Telefonica.

Telefonica argued that, under a national law based on EU rules, it only had to disclose the name of an Internet subscriber for criminal actions, not civil ones.

Evidently file sharing, i.e., illegal copying of copyright-protect music, isn’t even a little criminal in Europe. And did I mention that nobody really likes record companies, or their obsessive death-spiral litigation campaign against (yes, illegal) file-sharing, anyway?

Ron Coleman

LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION blog author Ron Coleman is a member of Dhillon Law Group in their New York City and Montclair, New Jersey offices. He is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and Princeton University.

3 Replies to “EU privacy fetish protects file-sharers

  1. Pingback: CopyrightLaw
  2. Hardy a fetish 🙂

    In the balance between conflicting rights (the right to privacy and the right to property) the courts found that individuals civil rights cannot be violated unless the crime carries a high enough penalty. Why should copyright be the value above all other rights?

    In the present climate copyright trumps most other values with little or no need for a thorough legitimization other than it exists. Would love to see other rights have it so easy.

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