Filtering away infringement: copyright, injunctions & the role of ISPs

23-07-2014 Print this page
B913115

Kluwer Copyright Blog bericht: "On 2-4 July 2014 Information Influx, the 25th anniversary conference of the Institute for Information Law, (IViR) was held in Amsterdam. As part of the conference, on the morning of Thursday, 3 July a panel entitled Filtering away Infringement: Copyright, Injunctions and the Role of ISPs was held. [...]

The past few years have witnessed a number of European court decisions ordering online intermediaries to block or filter the content of the websites and networks in order to prevent or stop copyright infringements committed by their users. This is a natural result of the liability rules of the E-Commerce Directive, which offer immunity to internet intermediaries against claims for monetary relief, but remain silent on the topic of injunctions.

In this context, questions have been raised concerning the appropriate standard for injunctive relief against innocent intermediaries, the permissible range of such injunctions, the relationship between injunctive relief and liability, as well as the possible need to extend harmonisation and/or immunity to this liability-adjacent area. In addition, issues of proportionality and correct balancing with other competing rights and interests have been highlighted by recent CJEU case law. The underlying key question โ€“ can technology solve this problem and, if so, should technology be allowed to determine law? โ€“ remains unanswered.

It was this question that the panel was taxed with investigating and to this end injunctive relief against innocent intermediaries was put on trial โ€“ an unconventional procedure in the tradition of most legal systems perhaps, in view of the lack of specific case concretising the issue, but one intended to foster a lively dissection examining all sides of this tricky question.

The panel began with a half-hour debate between opposing legal counsel, each instructed to adopt and defend an extreme view of the issue.

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