On October 24 the Brussels Court of First Instance accepted Scarlet’s argument that the filter, called Audible Magic - and proposed to the court last year by the music industry's own copyright collecting agency SABAM - simply does not work. Scarlet told the court that SABAM had falsely represented that the technology had been used elsewhere.

Scarlet had been ordered to pay EUR2,500 a day as long as the illegal file sharing continued, but the court has absolved it from the fine pending a hearing at the Belgian Court of Appeal in October 2009. The trial court still proposes to require Scarlet to instal a filter if an effective solution can be found, so it seems likely that the case will end up at the European Court of Justice.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IPFI) was crowing in its Digital Music Report 2008, in which the impact of piracy on the music industry was examined that: "2007 was the year ISP responsibility started to become an accepted principle. 2008 must be the year it becomes reality."

"ISP cooperation, via systematic disconnection of infringers and the use of filtering technologies, is the most effective way copyright theft can be controlled. Independent estimates say up to 80% of ISP traffic comprises distribution of copyright-infringing files," said the Federation.

IFPI pointed to French President Sarkozy’s November 2007 plan for ISP cooperation in fighting piracy as a groundbreaking example internationally, and suggested that momentum was also gathering in the UK, Sweden and Belgium. The report called for legislative action by the European Union and other governments, where existing discussions between the music industry and record companies fail to progress.

The European Parliament's decision came as a blow to IFPI, and the Belgian court decision is a further set-back. Attention will now turn to the case brought in Ireland by the main record labels against Eircom under the Irish Copyright and Related Rights Acts 2000 in an attempt to force the company to use filtering technology. Eircom’s lawyers say that Eircom is under no legal obligation to monitor traffic on its network. A hearing is pending before the High Court in Dublin.