Anonymity a “Fundamental Right”
The European Court of Justice ruled today that record labels and film studios cannot ask telecommunications companies to hand over the names and addresses of people they suspect of downloading copyrighted material from the Internet. They did, however, mention that EU member nations may create their own rules to allow such information to be obtained for civil proceedings.
The European arm of the Motion Picture Association actually applauded the decision, saying that it upheld both copyrights and the right to privacy.
Both are fundamental rights, the court said, and governments will need to find ways to reconcile them and allow copyright holders seek some kind of compensation.
The MPAA, RIAA and their European partners have been crying foul over illegal downloading and claiming that it is the single greatest obstacle facing the growth of their industries. It is painful to continue watching these associations trying to fight the world back into its little box o’ distribution rights and controlled releases. They are fundamentally failing to adjust to the new technologies today and will continue to lose out if they can’t seize on the opportunities provided by the new medium.
Even their members are starting to get it right. Universal and NewsCorp started Hulu, a medium that seems to be working well in Beta, although it is hampered by the writers’ strike. Other studios are seeing increased sales online through iTunes, Amazon’s Unbox and others.
Also, remember when the MPAA claimed that 44 percent of its lost revenues were due to pimply college students downloading moves to their computers? Looks like they were wrong.
