BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2020) The YouTube video platform is not obliged to provide the email address, IP address or telephone number of users who unlawfully uploaded films onto the platform but only their postal address, the EU Court of Justice said in a press release on Thursday.
The judgment was made regarding the relevant request from Constantin Film Verleih, the holder of exclusive rights of the films Parker and Scary Movie 5 in Germany, who said these films were illegally uploaded to YouTube in 2013 and 2014. The films have been viewed tens of thousands of times. The company demanded that YouTube and Google, which is the former's parent company, provide it with a set of information relating to each of the users who had uploaded those films. The two companies refused to provide their email addresses and telephone numbers, as well as the IP addresses.
"When a film is unlawfully uploaded onto an online platform, such as YouTube, the rightholder may, under the directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, require the operator to provide only the postal address of the user concerned, but not his or her email, IP address or telephone number," the press release read.
At the same time, the court ruled that EU member states can provide holders of intellectual property rights with the opportunity to receive fuller information if "a fair balance ... between the various fundamental rights involved" is kept and other general principles of EU law, including the principle of proportionality" are complied with.
