Record labels and film studios cannot demand that telecom companies hand by the names and addresses of citizens suspected of breaking European copyright rules by swapping illegal downloads, the EU’s top court ruled Tuesday.

But European Union nations could — whether they want to — introduce rules to oblige companies to hand by personal info in similar cases, the European Court of Justice said.

The court upheld Spanish telecom company Telefonica SA’s right to refuse to hand by info that would identify who had used peer-to-peer file-sharing tool KaZaA to distribute copyrighted material owned by Promusicae, a Spanish nonprofit group of film and music producers.

EU law does not require governments to protect copyright by forcing companies to reveal personal details in civil legal actions, the Luxembourg-based court ruled.

They could draft national rules to change that. but they will next have to balance the right to privacy against property rights and “cannot however affect the requirements of (protecting)

personal info,” a court statement said.

The ruling “raises the question of the need to reconcile the requirements of the protection of different fundamental rights, namely the right to respect for private life on the one hand and the rights to protection of property and to an effective remedy on the other,” the court said.

A Spanish court had asked the European court to give guidance on the case after Promusicae complained of Telefonica’s refusal to hand by details identifying the citizens who used the computer addresses linked to the illegal downloads.

Telefonica claimed Spanish law only allows it to share personal notes for criminal prosecutions or matters of public safety measure and national defense.

The European branch of the Motion Picture organization — which represents American film studios such as Universal, Walt Disney, Paramount and others — welcomed the ruling as balanced considering the court had held up copyright…

Orginal post by Top Tech News