Day: 3 April 2014

UPC Telekabel Wien GmbH v Constantin Film Verleih GmbH and Another: (Case C-314/12); [2014] WLR (D) 148

‘A person who made protected subject matter available to the public on a website without the agreement of the copyright holder, for the purpose of article 3(2) of Parliament and Council Directive 2001/29/EC, was using the services of the Internet service provider of the persons accessing that subject matter, which had to be regarded as an “intermediary” within the meaning of article 8(3) of the Directive. The fundamental rights recognised by EU law did not preclude a court injunction prohibiting an Internet service provider from allowing its customers access to a website placing protected subject matter online without the agreement of the rightholders when that injunction did not specify the measures which that access provider had to take and when that access provider could avoid incurring coercive penalties for breach of that injunction by showing that it had taken all reasonable measures, provided that (i) the measures taken did not unnecessarily deprive Internet users of the possibility of lawfully accessing the information available and (ii) that those measures had the effect of preventing unauthorised access to the protected subject matter or, at least, of making it difficult to achieve and of seriously discouraging Internet users who were using the services of the addressee of that injunction from accessing the subject-matter that had been made available to them in breach of the intellectual property right, that being a matter for the national authorities and courts to establish.’

WLR Daily, 27th March 2014

Source: www.iclr.co.uk