[P2P-F] Fwd: [fcf_discussion] Online Copyright: EU Court of Justice Rules Out Private and Automatic Censorship

Thu Feb 16 12:38:21 CET 2012

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: La Quadrature du Net <jz at laquadrature.net>
Date: Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Subject: [fcf_discussion] Online Copyright: EU Court of Justice Rules Out
Private and Automatic Censorship
To: fcforum_discussion at list.fcforum.net

Themes: COPYRIGHT, INTERNET, CENSORSHIP, ACTA, EU COURT OF JUSTICE, SOCIAL
NETWORKS, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/online-copyright-eu-court-of-justice-rules-out-private-and-automatic-censorship

Online Copyright: EU Court of Justice Rules Out Private and Automatic
Censorship

*** Paris, February 16th, 2012 – The European Court of Justice rendered
another decision in defence of freedoms online. In the SABAM vs. Netlog
case, it declares that forcing a hosting service to monitor and filter
online content violates EU law. This is a crucial and timely ruling, just
when initiatives such as ACTA and the revision of the IPRED directive aim
to generalise private and automatic online censorship to enforce an
outdated copyright regime. ***

In this important ruling, the EU Court of Justice follows a similar
reasoning to that of the SABAM vs. Scarlet decision [1], and concludes that
forcing a hosting service to screen all of its users' communications in
order to block potentially copyright-infringing content violates EU law and
fundamental rights, in particular freedom of expression and privacy. The
Court referred in particular to the 2000 Online Services Directive
(“eCommerce directive”) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights [2].

As several policy proposals such as ACTA or the upcoming IPRED revision aim
at preventing the sharing of culture through a private party enforcement,
this decision comes right on time. It clearly states that pushing private
companies to monitor and police their networks and services to prevent
potential copyright infringements is not compatible with the democratic
values of the European Union.

“This ruling should sound as a call for EU policy makers to stop pushing
for privatized censorship schemes under the guise of ‘cooperation’ between
Internet actors and the entertainment industry. We now need to break away
from repression, which is bound to undermine our freedoms online and an
open Internet, and engage in a profound reform of our broken copyright
regime. We must invent a copyright that, instead of censoring the Net, will
foster access to culture and sharing while fairly funding creation.”, said
Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for the advocacy group La Quadrature du
Net.

The ECJ ruling the SABAM vs. Netlog case follows a lawsuit introduced in
2009: Belgian copyright collecting society SABAM sued the Belgium-based
social networking site Netlog and demanded that Netlog, which qualifies as
a hosting service, be forced to install a system to prevent copyright
infringements carried on by its more than 2 million Belgian members. The
Court of First Instance of Brussels referred the case to the European Court
of Justice, asking whether such measure was compatible with EU law [3].

* References *

1.
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/eu-court-of-justice-censorship-in-name-of-copyright-violates-fundamental-rights
2. See the ruling: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/P_84732/
3. The full preliminary question was the following: “Is it in conformity
with the EU E-Copyright Directive 2001/29, the EU IP Enforcement Directive
2004/48, the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46, the EU E-Commerce
Directive 2000/31, the EU Privacy in Electronic Communications Directive
2002/58 and Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights
that EU Member States allow a national court to issue a cease-and-desist
order against internet intermediaries the services of which are used by
third parties to commit copyright infringement, so that a hosting provider
is obliged to install a system for its entire clientèle, which filters all
incoming and saved information in order to identify electronic data which
contain copyright-protected work and in order to block the further exchange
of these files?”

** About la Quadrature du Net **

La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that defends the rights and
freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for
the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding
principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better
understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and
pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage
citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the
digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international
NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society
Institute and Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net

** Press contact and press room **

Jérémie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room

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