Thursday, April 14, 2011

No Internet filtering law without prior, according to the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice

A national court can not compel an ISP to filter all Internet communications to block those violating copyright, says Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, Thursday, April 14. Such a blocking measure is only admissible if it is based "on a legal basis for national, accessible, clear and predictable," the Court stated in its press release (.

Pdf). The opinion of Advocate General, Pedro Cruz Villalon, is not binding, but it is followed by eight in ten by the Luxembourg judges when they make their decision. This time they are entered by the Court of Appeal of Brussels, who asked an opinion before deciding a dispute between the Belgian supplier of Internet access, Scarlet, the Belgian society of copyright management, the Sabam.

Following a complaint from Sabam, Scarlet has been convicted at trial by a Belgian court to prevent its customers from receiving or sending files containing a musical repertoire Sabam, under penalty of a fine. Scarlet has appealed. "LIMITATION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS" In his opinion, Pedro Cruz Villalon said that the Belgian ruling would force Scarlet to filter all data passing through its network, which "permanently affect an unspecified number of legal and natural persons." He also notes that this requirement "is to be extended eventually to all suppliers of Internet access".

However it limits the fundamental rights to confidentiality of communications, data protection and freedom of information, and is not intended "expressly, prior, clear and precise" in Belgian law, "he further claims. "This decision was widely influential French debate on the introduction of screening.

Here are the screening procedures in their entirety that are challenged in that they restrict the freedoms of users," said Françoise Castex, MEP Socialist, in a statement.

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