Explore

Nearly two years after the European Court of Justice has issued its famous judgment on the right to be forgotten, in its famous Google Spain Case, the Belgian Court of Cassation has for the first time decided itself on the matter (Cass. 29 April 2016, n° C.15.0052.F). On 29th April 2016, the Belgian Court decided that the right to privacy and right to be forgotten expressed by the claimant justify the limitation of the right to freedom of expression from the newspaper Le Soir. Therefore, Le Soir was ordered to remove the name of the applicant from the archives section of its printed newspaper. According to the Court, the right to be forgotten is a component of the right of personal privacy (Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). The protection of the right to privacy...

This is one of series of country reports prepared for the Council of Europe in 2015. Other countries' reports, and responses from national governments, are available here. [The report for Belgium is also available in French on the site.] The studies undertake to present the laws and, in so far as information is easily available, the practices concerning the filtering, blocking and takedown of illegal content on the internet.

(1) Reversing the decision of the Anvers Court of Appeal of February, 14 2013, ordering the blockage of all the websites redirecting to "thepiratebay.org," and sending the case back to the Brussels Court of Appeal. (2) The Belgian Supreme Court confirmed that the public prosecutor did not violate the law by ordering the ISPs to block all websites redirecting to thepiratebay.org. The Court confirmed that far-reaching blocking orders against all national Internet service providers are lawful. According to the Supreme Court, a magistrate is entitled to order, (i) in a single injunction, (ii) all national Internet service providers to (iii) block access to IP rights-infringing content (iv) which is hosted by a server, linked to a specific main domain name, (v) by employing all possible technical means at their disposal or...

This April 1999 Protocol of cooperation between ISPA (the Belgian ISP Association), the police and judicial authorities was agreed upon to improve the cooperation between Belgian ISPs and judicial authorities. The Protocol put in place a Central Judicial Contact Point, which is now eCops, available at www.ecops.be). eCops is an online complaint department to which Internet users, as well as the ISPs, can report crimes (including copyright infringments) committed through the Internet.

This is the Code of conduct set up by ISPA, the Belgian Association of Internet service providers. This Code of conduct is a example of self-regulation. It is mandatory for all the members of ISPA. It binds the members to a set of obligations, including the obligation for all the Belgian ISPs to collaborate adequately with the judicial authorities in their fight against online crimes, including copyright infringments, also through the Central Judicial Contact Point or eCops (see below).