On March 16, 2007, the police arrested the
owner of www.arenabg.com, which is one of
Bulgaria’s largest BitTorrent trackers and one
among the country’s ten most popular Web
sites, 47 providing links to copyrighted music,
movies, and software.
48
Although the owner was
released within twenty-four hours, the Web site
was filtered by police order for the period March
16–19, on the grounds that it was “necessary to
prevent foreign interference with the torrent trackers.” 49 The order to filter the site was lifted by the
General Office for Fighting Organized Crime, but
has resulted in considerable citizen protest for
what is considered unjust treatment toward the
owners and operators of torrent sites. 50 Following
the arrest, other tracker Web sites have reportedly closed, some under threat of confiscation of
property by the police, or have moved their
servers abroad to avoid prosecution under the
Bulgarian Copyright Law. The extent of actual filtering of these sites in the country is not known
because there are differing reports regarding
accessibility by various ISP subscribers. Given
that BitTorrent trackers point to content but do not
host it, the legal recourse to deal with the copyright violation associated with these Web sites is
especially unclear. 51
Law suits concerning alleged copyright
infringement by search engines have been raised
in a few countries, with recent rulings in favor of a
notice-and-takedown policy that could arguably
serve as a precedent for other countries in the
region. In February 2007 the Brussels Tribunal
found Google Inc. to be in violation of national
copyright laws in a case raised by Copiepresse
of Belgium, a trade group representing seventeen of Belgium’s French- and German-language
newspapers, and the company was fined 2.4 million pounds for the breach. 52 As per a translation
of the ruling, “the reproduction and publication of
headlines as well as short extracts, and the use
of Google’s cache, the publicly available data
storage of articles and documents, violate the
law on authors’ rights.” 53 The former refers to the
Google News service,
54
while the latter to Google
Web Search. The outcome is that Google cannot
include references to articles, pictures, or drawings of Copiepress members through its Google
News service without prior agreements, and
must remove Belgian newspaper content from its
search results. Failure to comply will result in
fines of 25,000 euros a day.
Google intends to appeal against the judgment, stating that Web search results and the
news service in fact drive more traffic toward the
newspaper Web sites, and that Google News
does not earn any advertising revenue from this.
Copiepress, however, holds that by allowing
users to bypass the front pages of newspapers
and link directly to articles, newspapers lose
advertising revenue. In addition, by making old
newspaper material available through its cache,
newspapers effectively lose the ability to charge
customers for access to their archives, while
Google Web Search does in fact earn advertising
revenue for this service. The court ruling also
states that all copyright holders can notify
Google in case of infringement, and the search
engine will have to remove content within a twenty-four-hour period or pay a 1,000 euro daily
fine. 55 This could lead to an attitude of risk aversion and immediate compliance on the part of
ISPs, content providers, and search engines—
similar to instances of alleged defamation—in the
face of potential law suits.
Google had run into similar difficulty in
France with respect to its news service when
Paris-based Agence France Presse (AFP) had
sued the company for USD 17.5 million in 2005.
The suit was dropped in April 2007, following a
licensing agreement where Google would be
allowed to use stories and photographs from
AFP for its news aggregator and for other Google
services, including products that Google is
expected to launch in the future. The financial
terms of this arrangement have not been publicly
disclosed. 56 Out-of-court settlements in Europe
for copyright infringement should not be surpris192
Regional Overviews
owner of www.arenabg.com, which is one of
Bulgaria’s largest BitTorrent trackers and one
among the country’s ten most popular Web
sites, 47 providing links to copyrighted music,
movies, and software.
48
Although the owner was
released within twenty-four hours, the Web site
was filtered by police order for the period March
16–19, on the grounds that it was “necessary to
prevent foreign interference with the torrent trackers.” 49 The order to filter the site was lifted by the
General Office for Fighting Organized Crime, but
has resulted in considerable citizen protest for
what is considered unjust treatment toward the
owners and operators of torrent sites. 50 Following
the arrest, other tracker Web sites have reportedly closed, some under threat of confiscation of
property by the police, or have moved their
servers abroad to avoid prosecution under the
Bulgarian Copyright Law. The extent of actual filtering of these sites in the country is not known
because there are differing reports regarding
accessibility by various ISP subscribers. Given
that BitTorrent trackers point to content but do not
host it, the legal recourse to deal with the copyright violation associated with these Web sites is
especially unclear. 51
Law suits concerning alleged copyright
infringement by search engines have been raised
in a few countries, with recent rulings in favor of a
notice-and-takedown policy that could arguably
serve as a precedent for other countries in the
region. In February 2007 the Brussels Tribunal
found Google Inc. to be in violation of national
copyright laws in a case raised by Copiepresse
of Belgium, a trade group representing seventeen of Belgium’s French- and German-language
newspapers, and the company was fined 2.4 million pounds for the breach. 52 As per a translation
of the ruling, “the reproduction and publication of
headlines as well as short extracts, and the use
of Google’s cache, the publicly available data
storage of articles and documents, violate the
law on authors’ rights.” 53 The former refers to the
Google News service,
54
while the latter to Google
Web Search. The outcome is that Google cannot
include references to articles, pictures, or drawings of Copiepress members through its Google
News service without prior agreements, and
must remove Belgian newspaper content from its
search results. Failure to comply will result in
fines of 25,000 euros a day.
Google intends to appeal against the judgment, stating that Web search results and the
news service in fact drive more traffic toward the
newspaper Web sites, and that Google News
does not earn any advertising revenue from this.
Copiepress, however, holds that by allowing
users to bypass the front pages of newspapers
and link directly to articles, newspapers lose
advertising revenue. In addition, by making old
newspaper material available through its cache,
newspapers effectively lose the ability to charge
customers for access to their archives, while
Google Web Search does in fact earn advertising
revenue for this service. The court ruling also
states that all copyright holders can notify
Google in case of infringement, and the search
engine will have to remove content within a twenty-four-hour period or pay a 1,000 euro daily
fine. 55 This could lead to an attitude of risk aversion and immediate compliance on the part of
ISPs, content providers, and search engines—
similar to instances of alleged defamation—in the
face of potential law suits.
Google had run into similar difficulty in
France with respect to its news service when
Paris-based Agence France Presse (AFP) had
sued the company for USD 17.5 million in 2005.
The suit was dropped in April 2007, following a
licensing agreement where Google would be
allowed to use stories and photographs from
AFP for its news aggregator and for other Google
services, including products that Google is
expected to launch in the future. The financial
terms of this arrangement have not been publicly
disclosed. 56 Out-of-court settlements in Europe
for copyright infringement should not be surpris192
Regional Overviews