European ISPs may be required to block access to pirated content

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that it is legal in Europe to force an ISP to block access to a website that it otherwise has no control over. The decision follows a dispute between two movie companies - Germany's Constantin Film Verleih and Austria's Wega- Filmproduktionsgesellschaft - and internet provider UPC Telekabel Wien. UPC Telekabel has lost its case, in which it argued that it shouldn't have to block access to streaming site kino.to, as it wasn't responsible for the site's actions.

"An ISP, such as UPC Telekabel, which allows its customers to access protected subject-matter made available to the public on the internet by a third party is an intermediary whose services are used to infringe a copyright," the court ruled.

ECJ court found ISPs must ensure that blocking access to websites not deprive users "of the possibility of lawfully accessing the information available." The court found that copyright and intellectual property outweighed the "freedom to conduct a business" which ISPs had argued protected them from acting on court injunctions. Torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents are already blocked in several countries around the EU and in the UK, for example, dozens of 'pirate' domains are now blocked at the ISP level.

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