WIPO Seminar Divided On ISP Liability

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

22 April 2005

The seminar hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva on Monday regarding copyright and ISP liability was deeply divided, according to those who attended it.

The reportedly "highly politicised" meeting, attended by representatives of the entertainment industry and international government officials, eventually reached the conclusion that more legislation was necessary, but failed to decide whether the new laws should provide stronger protections for internet users, or whether they should support the entertainment industry in hunting down those who infringe copyright.

According to the European Digital Rights group (EDRI), representatives of which attended the seminar, the opening keynote speeches by Lilian Edwards and Charlotte Waelde from the AHRB Research Centre in Intellectual Property and Technology of the University of Edinburgh provided the audience with an overview of the issues related to provider liability for content provided or shared by their customers.

Ms Edwards reportedly started by examining the definition of 'service provider', which now also includes online auctions, search engines, RSS feeds, blogs, chat-rooms and price comparison sites, whilst Ms Waelde analysed the jurisprudence of the different court cases against producers of P2P software, both in the US and in the Netherlands, concluding, according to EDRI "that it is crucial for the liability question in P2P cases to determine whether the ISP is somehow authorising the infringement, or whether an ISP is entitled to presume that facilities will be used in accordance with the law".

Also speaking at the meeting, Jule Sigall of the US Copyright Office explained that he was happy with the protections afforded in the United States by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA).

Vice President & Associate General Counsel of Verizon, Sarah Deutsch, meanwhile, reportedly observed that the majority of ISPs have evolved into content producers, with a vested interest in combating piracy.

However, EDRI revealed that following this:

"She opened a frontal attack on the Motion Picture Association, specifically the wish-list circulated in advance of the conference, demanding a.o. that providers should immediately hand-over identifying details about their customers to right holders and terminate contracts with 'repeat' (alleged) infringers."

Ms Deutsch went on to argue that an ISP is not a policing service and that the privacy-rights of users should be respected.

Recommended