There are several types of situations in which Internet intermediaries may need to consider the Personal Data Act. The types of rules that apply are determined in important regards by reference to whether the intermediary merely needs to consider the abuse rules in Section 5 a, or the full force of the Act.
Despite its technology-specific title, this Act has a broad scope and is of fundamental importance to Internet intermediaries. Essentially it outlines three duties for affected Internet intermediaries: (1) an information duty (Section 3), (2) a supervision duty (Section 4), and (3) a duty to erase certain messages. (Section 5)
The matter related to whether the owner of a BBS could be liable for copyright infringements committed via the BBS. The key issue regarded what parts of that party’s technical equipment was to be seized.
The owner of a BBS had dealt with at least 1000 copyright protected software products, amongst other things making the software products available to 300 paying subscribers. The matter related to whether the owner of a BBS could be liable for copyright infringements committed via the BBS. The Court concluded that there were serious gaps in the copyright protection afforded by the law.