confirming the March 13, 2015 judgment of the Brussels Court of First Instance (see below) and restating that there is no legal basis for SABAM to seek the collection of royalties from ISPs for alleged (unauthorized) communication to the public of works in SABAM's repertoire.
The Supreme Court reviewed the application of the exemptions from liability established in the e-commerce Directive, as implemented by Article 20 of Law of March, 11 2003 related to certain aspects of services of the information society. The exemptions would cover over only cases where the activity of the information society service provider is (i) limited to the technical process of operating and giving access to a communication network (ii) over which information made available by third parties is transmitted or temporarily stored, (iii) for the sole purpose of making the transmission more efficient. (iv) This activity must be of a mere technical, automatic and passive nature, which implies that the information society service provider has neither knowledge of nor control over the information which is transmitted or...
The Belgian Supreme Court upheld an appelate decision holding that it is not possible for rightsholders or any other interested party to obtain from an hosting provider certain information to identify alleged copyright infringers on the basis of Article 21, § 2 of the Law of March 11, 2003 on certain services of the information society. This provision only allows judicial or administrative authorities to obtain these information (name of the client, his geographical situation, etc.) from a hosting provider in order to look for possible violation of the Law.
This decree establishes the protection of rights of the users, including the right of privacy and personal data. It declares national priority on the promotion and use of information and communication technologies. The national government has the duty to promote this technology.
This law defines a network as a group of connections that conducts symbols, texts and information among others and information and communication technologies as a collection of tools, resources, informatics programs, nets, among others that transmits, storage, process, compiles and the receptions of information, texts, videos, images, etc. The Ministry of Telecommunications has the duty to supervise, monitor, and oversee the proper management of the information and communication technologies.