Now, this is interesting. As you know, the record companies have for some time expressed the opinion that the internet service providers, many of whom benefited from early interest in broadband mainly from those downloading music, should take more responsibility for the illegal distribution of music files online. The ISPs have in the main resisted accepting any such responsibility, arguing it is not their role to decide what is legitimate and illegitimate distribution, but a court ruling in Belgium might just stop them from maintaining that stand.
The court ruling stems from action taken by Belgian collecting society Sabam against Tiscali Belgium, which has since been rebranded as Scarlet. It said that consumers were using Tiscali's servers to illegally share music online, and that the ISP firm should make moves to stop such copyright violation from going on.
Dismissing Tiscali/Scarlet's arguments that it was not responsible for the action of its customers, and that it couldn't do anything because of customer privacy rules, the Brussels court hearing the case concerned itself with whether or not it was technically possible for the ISP to stop illegal file sharing. To that end they commissioned an independent expert to investigate ways an ISP could put in place workable piracy filters, and that expert came forward with eleven proposed such systems earlier this year.
The court this week ruled that seven of those proposals were entirely workable for Scarlet, and ordered that the internet firm introduce one of the solutions within six months. If it does not it will be fined 2500 euros for every day after six months that its operates without such piracy protection.
The ruling is important because it is a European court saying that internet service provides both can and should stop their customers from participating in illegal file sharing. It remains to be seen if courts in other jurisdictions would take a similar viewpoint, but if there becomes a trend of judicial consistency in this domain you can expect Sabam's counterparts across Europe to start taking similar action against ISP's in their local territories.
Welcoming the ruling, the boss of the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry, John Kennedy, said yesterday: "The court has confirmed that the ISPs have both a legal responsibility and technical means to tackle piracy. This is a decision that we hope will set the mould for government policy and for courts in other countries in Europe and around the world".