Yesterday, the District Court of Essen, Germany, has prohibited the intended online publication of over 150.000 names of alleged copyright infringers, in a case brought forward by a private consumer against legal office Urmann and Colleagues (U+C). 

In August, U+C, who represent publishers of pornographic content, threatened to publish over 150.000 names of Internet users on their website. These users allegedly downloaded pornographic materials from an unauthorized source, and did not respond to the formal notices send by U+C. According to U+C, public humiliation of the (alleged) infringers will encourage the payment of the proposed settlements, thereby enforcing their client’s copyright. U+C announced that their focus will not just be on private consumers, but also on organisations. Among the cases are delicate suspects, such as church rectories or police stations. This could lead to scandalous situations. 

However, the District judge of Essen ruled that publication of such a list would be an infringement of the personal rights of the consumers involved.  The judge especially considered the fact that U+C has clients in the erotic industry, therefore, consumers who’s names are published on the U+C website could be associated with illegally downloading pornographic materials. Seemingly, the personal interests of consumers outweigh the interests of U+C’s clients in this particular case. 

This case is a great example of the tension between online copyright and personal rights of Internet users. On Future of Copyright, we have written about this tension before. These articles can be found here: 

• Cyberlocker Oron settles trial and hands over infringers' personal data
• Portuguese Government Creates Honeypot To Combat Piracy
• Belgian Court: Yahoo not obliged to cooperate with identification requests

Sources: Augsburger Algemeine, Ars Technica, Techdirt 

Written by: Nathalie Falot