Can EU Internet Service Providers Provide Information Regarding Copyright Infringers?
Martha L. Arias, Immigration and Internet Law Attorney, Miami; IBLS Director Monday, March 29, 2010 Databases recovered value with the imposition of the Internet. Nowadays, companies significantly invest in collecting, protecting, maintaining, and securing their databases. It is also clear that privacy laws in the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) protect personal identifiable information found in databases, and that Internet Service Providers (ISP), specifically, can only reveal this information to public authorities conducting criminal investigations or for national security purposes. Indeed, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided an interesting case that posted the question of whether ISP could sell information to copyright groups regarding copyright infringers. In the Spanish case of Productores de Musica de Espana (Promusicae) v. Telefonica de Espana SAU, 2007 ECJ, the ECJ was to answer a preliminary ruling regarding the use of an ISP””s database by copyright
