Friday 25 January 2008

Music pirates or data protection?

EU nations can refuse to disclose the identity of internet users who download music illegally. That's according to the bloc's top court which has ruled in favour of Spain's leading telecoms operator, Telefonica. It refused to hand over details of its clients to the music rights holders association, which wanted to start civil proceedings against internet pirates sharing copyright material.The European Court of Justice backed Telefonica, which argued that under Spanish law it was only required to disclose personal data for criminal investigations or matters of national security.EU judges added that member countries needed to strike "a fair balance" between the protection of intellectual property and of personal data.