Just as it has been in the UK and around Europe, the proposed ‘three strikes’ law for Internet pirates has been shut down in Germany.
The three strikes law would force ISPs to give two warnings to suspected unauthorized file sharers and then shut down their Internet connection on the ‘third strike.’
The German Department of Justice has met with German ISPs and one clear conclusion was made: Three Strikes laws are “incompatible with German pirvacy and telecommunications laws.”
In response, the IFPI said Germany would possibly face a competitive disadvantage against other countries that are still debating enacting the laws.
Germany’s Secretary of Justice Brigitte Zypries added:
“I don’t think that (Three Strikes) is a fitting model for Germany or even Europe. Preventing someone from accessing the Internet seems like a completely unreasonable punishment to me. It would be highly problematic due to both constitutional and political aspects. I’m sure that once the first disconnects are going to happen in France, we will be hearing the outcry all the way to Berlin.”
Result for: german isp
The Frankenthal district court in Germany has thrown out a lawsuit against a suspected unauthorized file sharer after claiming that the evidence used to prosecute him was “obtained in an unconstitutional way”.
The evidence was originally obtained by Swiss-based anti-piracy agency Logistep, which provided the users IP address to the content owners. The rights holders then used the IP address to begin the criminal complaint. Prosecutors then asked for the user’s name from his German ISP and used it to begin the civil lawsuit. That same process has been used to start almost 30,000 similar lawsuits in Germany over the years.
The court has now ruled however that the ISP is not allowed to give out the defendant’s names because file sharing “doesn’t count as a serious criminal offense.” That his name and address were handed over violates citizen’s constitutional right to privacy, the ruling read.
As there is no common law in Germany the case wont affect the thousands of other alleged file sharers in the same position but the decision should give defendants more leverage if they choose to take the case to court.
