The European Union’s highest court ruled
Thursday that online platforms don’t have to
disclose the full personal data including email
addresses, telephone numbers or IP addresses
of users who illegally upload movies and
copyright material.
The case stems from a German film distributor’s
request that YouTube provide details about
users who had uploaded the films “Parker” and
“Scary Movie 5” onto the platform. YouTube and
its parent company Google refused to provide
their email addresses and telephone numbers,
as well as the IP addresses they used.
The German Federal Court of Justice referred
the case to the European Court of Justice,
which said online platforms like YouTube just
need to provide the user’s postal address under
European rules on intellectual property rights.