The boss of Germany's record industry trade body, Dieter Gorny, has played down the significance of a court ruling there which has restricted the circumstances in which internet service providers should be obliged to share the identity of its customers with the authorities, saying web users' personal information should only be made available as a matter of course in "heavy" criminal cases such as terrorism, murder and child pornography.
Gorny says that the ruling will not have any influence on the German music industry's attempts to stop online music piracy, but it does illustrate that while some in European political circles are supportive of the content owners who want internet service providers to take a more proactive role in policing copyright infringement online, many European courts remain hesitant of forcing ISPs to collaborate with the record labels in combating copyright crimes. The ruling in the German Federal Constitutional Court last week follows rulings in both Spain and Italy where the courts ruled ISPs could not be forced to reveal the identities of suspected file sharers.
While playing down the significance of the court ruling, Gorny's association is known to be lobbying German politicians to try and persuade them to follow the lead of the French and UK governments in threatening to force the ISPs to police illegal file sharing if no voluntary systems can be agreed between the music firms and the net companies.