YouTube Can’t Be Forced to Fully Identify Piracy Culprits in EU
Written July 10, 2020
Google’s Youtube cannot be required to hand over the IP addresses, telephone numbers, or email addresses of its users who have uploaded copyright-infringing films to its platform, the Court of Justice of the European Union held on July 9, 2020. C‑264/19, Constantin Film Verleih GmbH v YouTube LLC and Google Inc., 2020 E.C.R.
The case stems from a German court dispute in which the owner of the rights to “Scary Movie 5” and “Parker” asked for details on three users who uploaded the movies to YouTube in 2013 and 2014. They asked the platform to provide them with the email addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses used by those users.
“When a film is unlawfully uploaded onto an online platform, such as YouTube,” the company may have to provide the culprit’s postal address. However, EU law doesn’t allow for further personal information to be shared, the judges said.