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| The European Court of Justice said that web filtering breaches the E-Commerce Directive |
The
European Court of Justice has ruled that content owners cannot ask ISPs to
filter out illegal content.
The ruling
could have implications for the creative industries as they attempt to crack
down on piracy.
The court
said that while content providers can ask ISPs to block specific sites, wider
filtering was in breach of the E-Commerce Directive.
A Belgian
court had previously ruled that a local rights holder could force an ISP to
filter content.
General monitoring
The case
stems back to 2004 when SABAM, a Belgian company responsible for authorising
music rights, discovered that customers of local ISP Scarlet were downloading
music illegally via peer-to-peer networks.
The
Brussels Court of First Instance ordered Scarlet to make it impossible for its
customers to send or receive files containing music from SABAM's catalogue on
such networks.
Scarlet
appealed to the Brussels Court of Appeal, claiming that the injunction failed
to comply with EU law.
It said that
the obligation to monitor communications on its network was in breach of the
E-Commerce Directive.
Seven years
on, the European Court of Justice agreed.
It said
that the move could affect Scarlet's ability to do business because it would
have to "install a complicated, costly, permanent computer system at its
own expense".
The court
ruled that the filtering could infringe the rights of customers and their right
to protect their own data.
It could
also mean that legal content was blocked.
"Such
an injunction could potentially undermine freedom of information since that
system might not distinguish adequately between unlawful content and lawful
content with the result that its introduction could lead to the blocking of
lawful communications," the court said in a statement.
Victory
TalkTalk
and BT are currently embroiled in legal action against the UK's Digital Economy
Act. They claim the law - which lays out rules for combating piracy - is also
in breach of the E-Commerce Directive.
While the
European ruling has "some relevance" to its case, it is not directly
linked, said Andrew Heaney, TalkTalks' head of regulatory affairs.
"The
idea of filtering was talked about in the UK but it came off the table some
time ago. This judgement is effectively about an old issue," he said.
Internet
freedom organisations welcomed the news.
Peter
Bradwell of the Open Rights Group said: "This judgement is a victory for
freedom of expression online. It draws a thick line in the sand that future
copyright enforcement measures in the UK cannot cross.
"Invasive
and general surveillance of users is unacceptable. This helps to nail down the
limits of powers to curtail people's freedom to communicate online."
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