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Domain Registrar Can be Held Liable for Pirate Site, Court Rules (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the holding-accountable dept.

The Higher Regional Court of Saarbrucken (a city in Germany) concluded Key-Systems, a German-based registrar, can be held secondarily liable for the infringing actions of a customer if it fails to take action if rightsholders point out "obvious" copyright infringing activity online. From a report: This means that, if a site owner is unresponsive to takedown requests, Key-Systems and other registrars can be required to take a domain name offline, even when the infringing activity is limited to a single page. The local music group BVMI is happy with the outcome of the case. They believe it will help copyright holders to take action against infringing activity. "This is a further important clarification in the legal space of the internet, helping it to become clearer and fairer for creatives and their partners," says Rene Houareau, BVMI's Managing Director Legal & Political Affairs. "The [court] affirms, with clearly outlined criteria, the responsibility of so-called registrars and thus gives affected rightsholders an important legal tool to defend themselves against the unlawful use of their content on the internet."

4 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. So who is required to pay... by Bradmont · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So who is required to pay for the employees who will filter and handle the incoming torrent of bogus takedown requests?

    1. Re:So who is required to pay... by sabri · · Score: 4, Funny

      The court that does not understand anything about the matter they're ruling on, of course.

      --
      I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  2. So In Germany by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If a licensed driver kills another motorist on the road, is the government held liable for provisioning the murderer a license?

    I fail to see the logic this court used.

  3. Why stop there? by johannesg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I mean, why not just take the entire top-level domain down if there is an infringing page somewhere? Since we are going for the disproportional response, we might as well take it all the way...