European national courts in several countries have ordered Internet providers to block certain websites or to filter all traffic passing across their networks in order to reduce copyright infringement. But a new legal opinion from one of Europe’s top lawyers says that such orders are not allowed, and that they violate various European “fundamental rights.”Judges from countries like Belgium and the Netherlands have issued several blocking or filtering requirements over the last several years. In 2007, for instance, the Belgian ISP Scarlet was ordered to halt copyright infringement on its network through traffic filtering and site blocking. That case has escalated to Europe’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, where today an Advocate General found the Belgian order inappropriate.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/europes-fundamental-rights-trump-judge-ordered-internet-filters.ars
Europe’s ‘fundamental rights’ trump judge-ordered Internet filters
European national courts in several countries have ordered Internet providers to block certain websites or to filter all traffic passing across their networks in order to reduce copyright infringement. But a new legal opinion from one of Europe’s top lawyers says that such orders are not allowed, and that they violate various European “fundamental rights.”