EMI has failed to force a German ISP to block access to file-sharing service eDonkey, after a court in Cologne ruled that the net firm was not liable for the actions of its customers. One specific customer of ISP HanseNet accused of illegally sharing unlicensed music via the P2P service was named in the lawsuit, albeit with their name redacted in the court’s published decision.
Of course, rights owners are increasingly calling for ISPs to block access to websites that primarily exist to aid infringement, especially when those websites are based in territories where fighting and enforcing infringement lawsuits is difficult.
In some countries there have been efforts to introduce new laws that offer rights owners a high-speed injunction system for forcing infringing sites to be blocked, but in other jurisdictions rights owners have tried to secure web-blocking court orders under existing laws, either by extending the concept of contributory infringement or the systems put in place to stop other illegal activity on the net, such as fraud and the distribution of images of child abuse. Where rights owners have relied on existing laws, courts in different countries have responded in different ways.
As previously reported, in July in the UK the Motion Picture Association successfully got an injunction ordering BT to block access to Newzbin2, an online community that provides links to all sorts of unlicensed content, and which relocated its base to Sweden after losing an earlier infringement lawsuit.
In the German case, EMI went the contributory infringement route, arguing that if HanseNet failed to block access to a site it knew was enabling a customer to infringe copyright, then it too should be liable for the infringement. But the net firm argued that was not the case, because under European Law it could not be held liable for the actions of its customers. It also added that web-blocking was pointless because such blocks could be easily circumvented by web-savvy file-sharers.
The German judge concurred with HanseNet, adding that for the ISP to interfere with a customer’s browsing would actually infringe German communication law. According to TorrentFreak, he also said he was convinced by HanseNet’s arguments that web-blocking was ineffective and therefore “useless”.
Sections: In The Pop Courts | Tags: eDonkey, EMI, Germany
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