Sky blocks Newzbin, important legal and technical questions need answering

[James Firth]

Igor Mozolevsky wrote:
> This is rather surprising especially given that just recently in
> Scarlet v. SABAM ECJ said that there is nothing to suggest that IP
> rights must be absolutely protected (at [43]) and a fair balance
> between other rights and interests must be struck (at [45,46]).

Opinions of two senior practicing lawyers would not agree with you there, although I got them to divulge opinion on condition I would not attribute it.

The SABAM case is fundamentally different, in that monitoring of traffic is a central part of the blocking order.  In Newzbin it's secondary - to check URLs, an action which could be seen as minimising the risk of "overblocking".  Arnold J said this explicity, more or less, in his October ruling (6 from memory).

All the issues of proportionality and compatibility have been addressed by Arnold, J.  Another judge might come to a different conclusion but the thinking I'm hearing is that Newzbin will not be affected SABAM.

If anyone wants to pay us to get a formal legal opinion we're accepting donations ;-)

James