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Austrian Firms Argue Significant Copyright Case Before EUCJ

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The Austrian Hohne, In der Maur & Partner Law Firm and Manak Schallabock & Partner Law Firm have appeared before the European Union Court of Justice in a dispute involving the legality of copyright site blocking injunctions predicted to have far-reaching implications.

Hohne, In der Maur & Partner, arguing on behalf of UPC Telekabel, claimed that its client's services had not infringed a copyright for purposes of relevant EU regulations because it did not have any business relationship with the operators of the website providing downloading or "streaming" of films without permission, and because it had not been established that its own customers acted unlawfully — and that, in any event, the various blocking measures which were contemplated could be technically circumvented and were, in some cases, excessively costly. The Court, in a lengthy decision accessible here, ruled that EU law did not preclude court injunctions requiring that access to such sites be blocked, "provided that (i) the measures taken do not unnecessarily deprive internet users of the possibility of lawfully accessing the information available and (ii) that those measures have the effect of preventing un-authorized access to the protected subject-matter or, at least, of making it difficult to achieve and of seriously discouraging internet users who are using the services of the addressee of that injunction from accessing the subject-matter that has been made available to them in breach of the intellectual property right, that being a matter for the national authorities and courts to establish."

UPC Telekabel Wien was represented by Markus Bulgarini and Thomas Hohne of Hohne, In der Maur & Partner Rechtsanwalte. The producers of the films that had been made available without permission, Constantin Film Verleih and Wega Filmproduktionsgesellschaft, were represented by Andreas Manak and Nikolaus Kraft of Manak Schallabock & Partner Rechtsanwalte.

 

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