Dutch court backs ISPs

Found on Inquirer on Tuesday, 12 July 2005
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A dutch court has told the music industry that forcing ISPs to hand over data on P2P customers would represent a breach of privacy.

The Brein Foundation asked five ISPs - UPC, Wanadoo,Tiscali, KPN and Essent Kabelcom, to hand over personal data on people downloading large amounts of music and films.

However, the Dutch court ruled that Brein had illegally obtained the names of the alleged internet pirates through a US research outfit MediaSentry.

The Court didn't like the way that MediaSentry's software scanned all the content of the "shared folder" on the customer's hard disk, which could also contain non-infringing data and personal information.

Personal data in the EU is a bit better protected than in the US where the music industry can do whatever it likes to obtain names of downloaders.

Why not sueing them for breaking privacy? Although I doubt this would be successful, it would be fun too see.