IPR2 has published a survey of the leading cases for online liability for copyright infringement in Europe. It follows the Seminar on the Judicial Protection of Copyrights on the Internet, held in co-operation with the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), by way of informing the Chinese judiciary of existing European mechanisms and practices for protecting copyrights on-line, enhancing understanding of European and international practices of IPR protection, including handling evidence, procedures and remedies for actions to enforce online copyright to help increase the capacity for adjudicating and handling such cases.  Download Online Copyright Liability: Leading European Cases1.32 MB. 

• web site operators and other users
• hosting providers
• hosting user generated content providers
• hyperlinking
• search engines
• disclosure of personal data 

Links to some of the complete cases may be found here: 

Liability of web site operators and other users

Polydor Ltd and others v Brown and others, High Court of Justice Chancery division, UK (first instance), 28 November 2005 http://www.i-law.com/ilaw/doc/view.htm?id=38280  (user name and password needed)  

Liability of Access Providers

SABAM v SA Scarlet Extended, Tribunal de Premiere Instance, Belgium, 26 November 2005, 29 June 2007 and 22 October 2008 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1027954(Note: English translation may be used for non-commercial purposes).  

Liability for hyperlinking

Belgacom Skynet v IFPI Belgium and N.V. Universal, Cour d’Appel, Belgium, 13 February 2001www.bechtold.name/archive/text/ifpi_v_belgacom.pdfwww.bechtold.name/archive/text/ifpi_v_belgacom_appeal.doc LeaseWeb BV v BREIN, Gerechtshof Amsterdam, Netherlands (appeal instance), 3 July 2008 http://zoeken.rechtspraak.nl/resultpage.aspx?snelzoeken=true&searchtype=ljn&ljn=BA7810&u_ljn=BA7810 

Liability of search engines

Google v Copiepresse SCRL, Tribunal de Première Instance, Brussels, Belgium, 13 February 2007 www.copiepresse.be/copiepresse_google.pdf 

Disclosure of personal data

Productores de Musica de Espana (Promusicae) v Telefonica de Espana SAU, European Court of Justice C-275/06, 29 January 2008 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62006J0275:EN:HTMLhttp://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/gettext.pl?where=〈=en&num=79919870C19060275&doc=T&ouvert=T&seance=ARRET 

This forms part of IPR2's work on providing access to information on the development and enforcement of copyrights in the digital environment.  

Other useful links

Supreme People's Court (SPC) 

For more information on copyright protection on the internet, contact Mr Benoit Misonne This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

For general information on IPR2, contact Ms Tamryn Barker This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

[IPR2 ref: CC4.AW2.009]