SABAM vs Netlog - another important ruling for fundamental rights on Internet

Created on Monday, 20 February 2012 08:47

Written by EgyptClass

SABAM (Société Belge des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs), the Belgian collecting society for music royalties, is in the spotlight again. A few months after the Scarlet/SABAM case, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has released a new decision on the legality of filtering systems on the Internet, this time with regard to filtering of content stored on web services.

On February 16th 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that a social network "cannot be obliged to install a general filtering system, covering all its users, in order to prevent the unlawful use of musical and audio-visual work".

SABAM brought the social network Netlog to court to impose an injunction requiring the installation of filtering systems aimed at the prevention of infringements committed by its Belgian members (around 2 million consumers) on its website.

What does the ruling mean at an international level for freedom of communication?

As Europe is traditionally seen as an example for fundamental freedoms especially freedom of speech, it was important to have a decision protecting freedom of communication, and freedom of expression as a global example of best practice.

Source: European Digital Rights