ECJ Hands Down Important ISP Liability Ruling

The European Court of Justice has ruled that member state internet service providers are not required to police their users’ activity proactively in order to make certain that those users do not violate copyright holders’ rights. The decision overturns a Belgian court’s decision holding that ISPs must install filters to ensure that users did not improperly share copyrighted files. Link to the judgment (not yet available in English) here. More here from the New York Times. Comments from the blogosphere here (IPKat), here (Informationoverlord) and here (e-comm, in German).

Thanks to Hans Peter Lehofer, on the Austrian Administrative Court, (who also blogs at e-comm) for the ECJ and blogpost links.