Internet provider Ziggo does not have to forward a warning to a customer who illegally downloads e-books, or to people who will do so in the future, as the BREIN Foundation had requested. This has been decided by the preliminary relief judge of the Utrecht District Court.
Copyright organization BREIN had filed a case because of a website on which more than 200 e-books can be downloaded. This includes titles by Dutch authors and partly illegal copies.
According to BREIN, the IP address holder in question has infringed copyrights himself, but the court does not agree. “It can also be someone else who, without the IP address holder’s knowledge, is using the IP address.”
The judge also ruled that forwarding a warning is in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
If the judge did not decide that Ziggo should forward a warning letter from BREIN, the foundation wanted Ziggo to provide the name, address, place of residence, so that BREIN could send the letters itself. However, the court also ruled to the detriment of the collecting society on this matter.
license
Both forwarding a warning letter and sharing name and address details are not possible, if only because Ziggo does not have a license from the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP).
“Ziggo does need a license from the AP to be able to internally link the IP address to the name and address details in order to be able to send a warning letter. That license is also needed if Ziggo wants to provide that name and address data to BREIN.”
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