ACTA - The owner of social network cannot be obliged to install filtering system

Court of Justice of the European Union PRESS RELEASE No 11/12 Luxembourg, 16 February 2012

The owner of an online social network cannot be obliged to install a general filtering system, covering all its users, in order to prevent the unlawful use of musical and audio-visual work

Such an obligation would not be respecting the prohibition to impose on that provider a general obligation to monitor nor the requirement that a fair balance be struck between the protection of copyright, on the one hand, and the freedom to conduct business, the right to protection of personal data and the freedom to receive or impart information, on the other