
Jurisprudence
Scarlet v SABAM: a win for fundamental rights and Internet freedoms
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Deutsch: Scarlet vs. SABAM: Ein Sieg für die Grundrechte und die Freiheit des ...
On 24 November 2011, the European Court of Justice decided that an Internet service provider (ISP) can not be ordered to install a system of filtering of all electronic communications and blocking certain content in order to protect intellectual property rights.
Slovakia: Court asks website to filter public procurement open data
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Deutsch: Slowakei: Gericht fordert Filterung von Open Data zum öffentlichen Au...
Fair-Play Alliance (AFP), a Slovak non-governmental organization operating znasichdani.sk site, was required by a Bratislava District Court to take down from the website information related to certain public procurement contracts.
The website was created in March 2011 in order to provide "a tool that would enable journalists and watchdogs to cross-check information about companies successful in public procurements with influential persons in these companies".
The basi
Legal victory for trademark litigants over intermediary liability
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Deutsch: Markenschutz-Verfechter erringen juristischen Sieg in Sachen Providerh...
On 12 July 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled on the liability of online marketplaces for trademark infringements by users and the scope of the hosting safe harbour of the E-Commerce Directive. The case results from legal proceedings between L'Oréal and eBay in the UK. The ECJ concluded that the safe harbour for hosting providers only applies to third party data processing that is merely technical and automated, as well as passive and neutral.
Finland: Blocking of domestic websites ruled illegal
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Deutsch: Finnland: Sperre heimischer Webseiten rechtswidrig
The Helsinki Administrative Court has ruled that domestic websites may not be placed on the secret blocking blacklist maintained by the police.
This is the latest turn in a long legal fight by Finnish activist Matti Nikki, whose website lapsiporno.info (translates as "childporn.info") was put on the secret blacklist in February 2008 and has remained on the list ever since.
The Finnish blocking blacklist is based on a law passed in 2006 that allows the police to create and maintain a secret list of websites in order to prevent access to child pornography on foreign websites.
Italian court found Google responsible for search suggestions to users
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Deutsch: Italienisches Gericht macht Google für Suchvorschläge haftbar
On 31 March 2011, an Italian court of Milan ruled that Google was responsible for its Google Suggest, the "autocomplete" function that suggests words and characters to complete a partial search for its users.
The case was brought to court by a person whose name, when typed in the Google search field, was associated, through the "suggested searches" (now "related searches"), to the words "truffatore" (con man, swindler) and "truffa" (scam, fraud).
The French supreme court recognizes hosting status of Web 2.0 services
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Deutsch: Französisches Höchstgericht bestätigt Hosting-Status von Web 2.0 Di...
On 17 February 2011 the French Court of Cassation recognized the hosting status of Dailymotion and Fuzz.fr.
Spanish sports streaming domain seized by US authorities without warning
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Deutsch: US-Behörden entziehen spanischen Sportstreamingseiten die Domain
The US authorities have recently seized, without any warning, the domain names of several sports streaming sites over alleged copyright infringements within the "Operation In Our Sites" action launched at the beginning of July 2010, targeting websites having allegedly offered users copyrighted material without copyright owners' consent.
In July 2010, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized a series of film streaming domain names.
Italy: Online editors are not liable as the printed press
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Deutsch: Italien: Online-Herausgeber unterliegen nicht den gleichen Haftungsbes...
The Italian Court of Cassation ruled in a decision taken on16 July 2010 and published on 1 October 2010 that online editors are not directly liable for the content published on their websites.


