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EU Court Rules Social Networks Cannot Be Forced To Police Downloads

Posted by Soulskill on from the getting-their-acta-together dept.

arnodf writes "According to EU Observer, 'The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has struck the latest blow in the debate over internet policing, ruling on Thursday (16 February) that online social network sites cannot be forced to construct measures to prevent users from downloading songs illegally. The court, which is the highest judicial authority in the EU, stated that installing general filters would infringe on the freedom to conduct business and on data privacy. ... The case was brought before the ECJ by Sabam, the Belgian national music royalty collecting society, against social network site Netlog. In 2009, Sabam went to the Belgian Court of First Instance to demand that Netlog take action to prevent site-users from illegally downloading songs from its portfolio. It also insisted that Netlog pay a €1,000 fine for every day of delaying in compliance. Netlog legal submission argued that granting Sabam's injunction would be imposing a general obligation to monitor on Netlog, which is prohibited by the e-commerce directive.' In related news, Sabam is going to be prosecuted (Google translation of Dutch original) for 'forging accounts, abuse of trust, bribery, money laundering and forgery,' which took place from the early 90's till 2007"

4 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Ruh roh!! by AngryDeuce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Man, the MAFIAA is sure gonna be pissed about this!

    With every passing day, they become more and more irrelevant, and that's just fine with me...

    1. Re:Ruh roh!! by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They'll die, but they'll go kicking, screaming, and destroying as many people as they can along the way. Kinda reminds me of a schoolyard bully, they have no problem fighting people as individuals, but as soon as those people band together the dinosaurs call foul.

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
  2. Re:Win for the good guys by Moryath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Repeal DMCA.
    1a - codify the right to backup to secure one's purchase against accident as a fundamental, protected consumer RIGHT.
    2. Constitutionally amend to remove corporate personhood.
    3. Return copyright to sane bounds, possibly bounds based on the life of the medium it is published in (it is absurd that computer programs, coded for hardware that was obsolete and almost impossible to find 5 years after the writing of the software, are copyrighted till doomsday).

    Anyone else have items to add?

  3. Re:Win for the good guys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    4. All buyers of electronic goods have the right to reverse engineer, bypass, overwrite and do what they bloody well please with their property.