website blocking

Collective management, Enforcement, Greece, Infringement, Legislative process, Liability, Remedies

(University of Cyprus)/ /Leave a comment

The draft law for the implementation in Greece of Directive 2014/26/EU on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market, which was released for public consultation a few days ago, contains a surprise provision, which has the potential to reverse the…

Case Law, Enforcement, Germany, Infringement, Liability

(Boehmert & Boehmert)/ /Leave a comment

The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled on two cases concerning internet access providers’ obligation to block access to websites providing links to predominantly illegal content. In these two landmark decisions, the BGH has paved the way for website blocking in Germany. Where protected content is offered illegally, directly or via link providers,…

Case Law, Communication (right of), Infringement, Liability, Netherlands, Remedies, Technological measures

(Institute for Information Law)/ /Leave a comment

On November 13th the Dutch Supreme Court provided another chapter in the case of ISPs and blocking of the Pirate Bay (hereafter: TPB). It decided that the Court of Appeal had used an incorrect, namely too broad, criterion to judge the effectiveness of a blocking measure. Furthermore, preliminary questions were referred to the ECJ concerning…

Case Law, Communication (right of), Enforcement, Infringement, Remedies, United Kingdom

(University of Reading)/ /Leave a comment

This case concerned blocking orders pursuant to s97A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA). The Court found that there was copyright infringement by both UK users and operators of file-sharing websites, insofar as there was communication of copyright works, the communication was to the public, and the act of communication took place in the UK.  This…

Case Law, Enforcement, Infringement, United Kingdom

(University of Reading)/ /Leave a comment

The claimants, all members of the Motion Picture Association of America holding copyright in a large number of films and TV programmes, were granted a blocking order preventing the use of Popcorn Time, an open source streaming application which used the BitTorrent protocol to download the claimants’ copyright content. A full summary of this case…

Case Law, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, Enforcement, Infringement, Remedies, Software, United Kingdom

(Bristows LLP) and (Bristows)/ /Leave a comment

Another blocking order in the UK, however, this time there was some complexity about the actual acts of infringement. In Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation & Ors v Sky UK Ltd & Ors, the High Court considered the circumstances in which website blocking orders should be granted against websites facilitating the use of a “sophisticated…

Enforcement, Infringement, Legislative process, Remedies, Russia

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

On 1 May 2015 a new, second, ‘anti-piracy’ law [1] will take effect in Russia. This law amends the provisions on preliminary interim blocking injunctions for intermediaries introduced by the first anti-piracy law, which took effect on 1 August 2013. In the opinion of this blogger, the new law, like its predecessor, will barely affect…

Austria, Case Law, Enforcement, Infringement, Remedies

(Gassauer-Fleissner)/ /Leave a comment

On June 24, 2014, the Austrian Supreme Court ruled that the Austrian internet service provider UPC Telekabel Wien GmbH must block access to copyright infringing websites.  The Supreme Court noted that, in accordance with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-314/12, such an injunction leaves its addressee to determine the specific measures to…