EU Court Says File Sharers Don't Have To Be Named

The European Court of Justice, dealing a massive setback to copyright holders, said today that countries can refuse to disclose names of file sharers in civil cases.

The European Court of Justice ruled on a dispute between Spanish music rights holders association Promusicae and Spain's top telecoms operator Telefonica. Telefonica argued that, under a national law based on EU rules, it only had to disclose the name of an Internet subscriber for criminal actions, not civil ones.

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