Copyright Law

German Report - Copyright Industry Retreats Lawsuit Against Filesharer

By DrewWilson

When a file-sharer was issued a cease and desist letter, a German court was asked to give a default judgement against the user. The file-sharer countered the claim, thus forcing the copyright industry lawyer via the German courts to substantiate their claims. The result? The lawyers withdrew their claim.

One of the akiles-heel’s of the copyright industry’s legal war on file-sharing has always been getting a sufficient amount of evidence to prosecute alleged copyright infringers. In Canada, for instance, when the RIAAs Canadian arm known as the CRIA filed lawsuits against file-sharers, an IP address wasn’t sufficient evidence. A similar thing with regards to lack of evidence has reportedly happened in Germany recently.

Firebird77 of Gulli wrote in recently to inform us of this development (Google translated). If the Google translation from German to English seems a bit confusing, he was kind enough to give us a brief summary for us.

Essentially, this is what had happened. A German file-sharer received a cease and desist order from the German law firm Schutt & Waetke on behalf of CDV-Entertainment, a copyright holder of video games. After several reminders, the lawyer handed the case over to Infoscore. After Infoscore issued a few final final demands, the case was then handed over to another law firm known as Haas & Partners. That law firm sent an additional warning letter before they demanded a court to issue a default summons. Firebird77 tells us that this particular part of the development is new in Germany. Several users then contradicted the order for a default summons, but the contradictions lost.

At this point, the alleged copyright infringer was issued an enforcement order. That was when the alleged copyright infringer issued a contradiction. So, the court ordered Haas & Partners to substantiate their claims. After receiving this order from the court, the lawyers on the case withdrew their claim to the surprise of some who are watching this case.

It’s unclear whether or not this could be a new strategy for file-sharers in Germany, but if these events play out in future cases, the copyright industry in Germany could have a brand new obstacle in their path to try and stop alleged copyright infringers in Germany. Still, the likelihood of these events from repeating every time could also be very slim. In any event, it seems to be a new victory for file-sharers and a surprising blow for the copyright industry.

Special thanks to Firebird77 for passing this along!

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Full post as published by ZeroPaid on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).