SABAM v Scarlet: Of Course Blanket Filtering of the Internet is Unlawful, but this Isn't the End of the Story

摘要

In SABAMv Scarlet (C-70/10),~1 SABAM wanted to force Scarlet, an ISP, to put in place an internet infringement-detection system in order to block any and all of its several hundred thousand internet users from using their connections to infringe copyright using peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing services. SABAM is the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers, a copyright collecting society representing the copyright interests of an array of Belgian artists from musicians and film-makers to novelists and graphic designers. In 2004, it grew frustrated with the level of copyright infringement committed via p2p file sharing and sued Scarlet in the Belgian High Court, seeking the above order. Its request was a radical but admirable one: how better to tackle the online piracy problem than by preventing its many perpetrators committing an infringement in the first place?