YouTube not required to hand over infringers’ details, says CJEU adviser
An EU advocate general has weighed in on whether YouTube should be forced to hand over details such as IP and email addresses to film companies.
German film distributor Constantin Film demanded that Google-owned YouTube provide the email addresses, telephone numbers, and IP addresses of the users who uploaded two of its movies, “Parker” and “Scary Movie 5”, in full to the video-sharing platform without permission.
YouTube refused, and the case made its way through regional and federal German courts before being referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
With Constantin’s request having been denied by two Frankfurt courts, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice asked the CJEU to clarify whether an EU law which may require platforms to hand over “names and addresses” of IP infringers applied to emails, IP addresses, and telephone numbers.
In an opinion issued yesterday, April 2, CJEU advocate general (AG) Henrik Saugmandsgaard Øe said that “addresses”, in everyday language, could not be considered to include IP and email addresses.
The AG’s opinion is not binding on the court, which may still rule in favour of Constantin. But AGs’ opinions are considered influential and often guide the court’s final ruling.
Constantin had argued that the purpose of the EU directive at issue (2004/48/EC) was to allow rights owners to identify infringers, in order to enforce their IP.
The film distributor said the directive should be read as covering “any information that makes it possible to identify” the infringer, even including bank details.
But the AG said this was too much of a departure from the wording of the statute.
“I understand of course that a [rights owner] such as Constantin Film Verleih would like Directive 2004/48 to be amended to enable it to identify possible infringers more easily in the specific context of the internet. However, rewriting that legislation falls not to the court, but to the EU legislature,” the AG wrote.
In February, Constantin’s film production arm won a major victory at the CJEU after the court reversed the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s refusal to register its ‘Fack Ju Göhte’ trademark.
The EUIPO had initially refused registration of the mark on the grounds that it was morally unacceptable and offensive.
But Constantin successfully argued that the mark could not be considered offensive given how language has evolved.
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