SABAM, the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers, has instituted on a prohibitory injunction in the court of first instance of Brussels against the Internet service provider Tiscali.
SABAM wishes to put an end to the use in Belgium of all P2P file exchange programs through this injunction. In other countries proceedings have been instituted without success against the providers of this software. Because of this SABAM decided to act directly against those who allow websurfers to access these programs, i.e. the Internet service providers.
SABAM demands that all Belgian ISPs block access to websites offering P2P software, and that they take technical measures so that already downloaded P2P software could no longer be used. This is the outcome that SABAM hopes to reach by currently instituting proceedings against Tiscali. This action is aimed at all P2P software programs on which copyrighted works are illegally exchanged.
They hope that in the case of a positive outcome this could be put forward afterwards with the regard to all other Belgian Internet providers.
Damage caused
If the P2P phenomenon is not the only cause of the yearly drop by on average 10 % of the CD sales in Belgium, it is undeniable that this phenomenon greatly contributes to this drop and that it prejudices the right owners who are associate members of SABAM. When you know that a legally downloaded excerpt costs on average € 0.99, you can imagine the extent of the prejudice to which the P2P phenomenon is daily subjecting the right owners by jeopardizing, by the way, a part of the cultural heritage.
Legal services of on-line music
SABAM reminds that several legal services of on-line music have recently appeared, that allow the listening, the downloading and the copying of music. So, it is possible for every Belgian net surfer to download – against payment – his favourite music from the web.
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Re: SABAM starts legal action against Tiscali to block all P2P software in Belgium (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Friday, September 22 2006 @ 22:20:31 CEST
is this expected to go through? cause p2p can be used for sharing more than just illegal copyrighted files
I know the majority of it is that kind of stuff, but that doesnt justify banning a whole technology just because its being misused
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