No Uniformity On Copyright Laws

While the UK moved closer to blocking file-sharing websites, it seems the Dutch government may be moving further away from it.

In the High Court in London Feb. 20, Mr. Justice Arnold will have pleased record companies and their artists by ruling that The Pirate Bay breaches copyright laws on a large scale.

However, the Dutch are proposing to make it easier to use copyrighted material without infringing the owners’ rights.

What’s worse for those wanting a pan-European approach to file-sharing is that Bernt Hugenholtz of the Dutch state committee on copyright law said the country is looking at easing the law “unilaterally” of the European Union. He thinks EU copyright law is too rigid.

Three weeks ago, the Court of The Hague ruled that Ziggo, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, and competitor XS4ALL have to block access to The Pirate Bay.

Neither of the providers, along with KPN and T-Mobile, is showing any sign of doing so.

“The high court has ruled that The Pirate Bay is illegal. The site defrauds musicians and causes huge damage to the music industry and wider creative industries,” said British Phonographic Industry chief exec Geoff Taylor.

“The ruling helps clarify the law on website blocking and we will now proceed with our application to have the site blocked to protect the UK’s creative industries from further harm.”