Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 8, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The music industry could soon be able to request the names and addresses of file-sharing users directly from Internet providers without having to obtain police and public prosecutor approval. The Bundestag will vote on the corresponding bill intended to make this possible on Friday, April 11. The key element of the federal government’s draft “Act to Improve the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights” is the introduction of a right for rights holders to demand information from third parties in cases of copyright infringement. The new law, intended to implement the EU Enforcement Directive in Germany, requires only a court order when traffic data are to be accessed.
“The law under discussion gives the music industry the ability to act more effectively against commercial pirates or product counterfeiters,” explains Verena Eckert, a legal expert at IT-Recht-Kanzlei, in an interview with NEws service pressetext.de. “Under the current version of the bill, it will gain additional ways to identify the infringer only if the infringement took place in the course of business,” Eckert stresses. The law has no effect on the many millions of file-sharing users, however, since they generally do not act in the course of business. “Such infringements in the course of business generally cause very substantial damage,” Eckert adds.
“Until now, rights holders had to file a criminal complaint against an unknown person if they did not know the infringer’s name, but only their IP address and the time of the infringement,” Eckert explains. The public prosecutor’s office then requested information from the relevant provider about whom the address in question was assigned to at that time. “The rights holders then obtained the pirate’s name and address by inspecting the case files,” says Eckert. “Under the new rules, the detour through the public prosecutor’s offices is to be eliminated when dealing with infringers acting in the course of business. The civil court is then also to be allowed to order the provider to disclose the relevant information,” Eckert explains.
For some time, the music industry has been using increased lobbying to put pressure on policymakers and providers to take effective measures against file sharing. Only last week, the first access provider in the United Kingdom yielded to this pressure and conceded to the industry’s demand for active monitoring of web content within its own offering. Internet pirates proven to have been caught will consequently have their Internet access blocked by the provider after their third offence.
