Right to family life cannot deprive IP owners of their rights: CJEU
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today ruled that the owner of an internet connection which was used to commit copyright infringements cannot escape liability by saying that a family member might also have been able to access that connection.
In 2010, German fiction publisher Bastei Lübbe asked an individual, Michael Strotzer, to cease-and-desist his file-sharing activities as they infringed the copyright of one of Bastei’s audio books.
Strotzer had allegedly shared an audio book via a file-sharing platform, and the sharing of the copyright-protected work occurred through an internet connection owned by Strotzer.
As the infringing activities continued, Bastei asked the Landgericht München I (the District Court Munich I, Germany) for monetary compensation for the infringement.
However, Strotzer denied the allegations of copyright infringement.
He claimed that his parents, who live in the same house, also had access to the connection which was used to violate Bastei’s copyright, but he did not provide information on how and when the connection was used by his parents.
The court in Munich found that Strotzer is very likely to have committed the infringing acts.
However, under the precedent set by the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice), Strotzer’s parent-centred defence is sufficient to exclude the owner of the internet connection from liability, in the context of the fundamental right to protection of family life, the Munich court said.
Last year, the court decided to stay the proceedings and ask the CJEU for clarification.
In June, advocate general Maciej Szpunar noted the difficulties facing IP owners seeking to identify online infringers.
It is “for the referring court to determine whether Strotzer is abusing the right to protection of family life by invoking that right, not in order to protect the members of his family against liability for the infringement of copyright with which they clearly have no connection, but solely in order to escape his own liability for that infringement”, he said.
In this instance, he concluded that the right to respect for private and family life under article 7 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights may not necessarily prevent copyright owners from protecting their IP.
Szpunar advised the CJEU to determine that: “The right to respect for family life, recognised in article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, cannot be interpreted in such a way as to deprive right holders of any real possibility of protecting their right to IP.”
Today, the CJEU agreed with Szpunar’s assessment.
The CJEU ruled that EU member states cannot have national legislation that prevents the owner of an internet connection used to commit copyright infringements being held liable where that owner names at least one family member who might have had access to that connection, but fails to provide information on how and when that connection was used by the family member.
A fair balance must be struck between the various fundamental rights, such as the right to an effective remedy, the right to IP, and the right to respect for private and family life, the court said.
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