German Court Says Registrars Are Responsible for Content on a Website

IT.com
This is one of the best verdict till date and guideline for registrars on how to act when something is reported to them.

This thing is very much clear in Indian Cyber Act and a notification (amended extension of Indian Cyber law) by Joint Secretary of Indian Ministry (previously Nixi's CEO) few years back that every registrar is intermediary and if anything brought to their notice or they came across any law violating activity then they should immediately act on this and if registrar fail to act within 36 hours then they will also held responsible for the same and action can be taken on registrars also.

In above case also registrar ignored the warning and didnot act so court said that they are also responsible, although same is very clear in Indian law. see below the quote from verdict....


While Key-Systems argued that it was not responsible for the copyright infringement, the court ruled that the registrar had a duty to investigate after notification of infringing activity and had to take corrective action in case of obvious violations, Greimann said.


"The courts' definition of what is obviously violating is however extremely broad and the duty to act is expanded to deactivation of the entire domain even if only one file or link is infringing," he said.



Below is three more interesting articles on this issue :

Domain seizures for copyright infringement likely to go global

Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/int...-for-copyright-infringement-likely-go-global/


Copyright infringement will lead ICANN registrars to lose accreditation

Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/int...ill-lead-icann-registrars-lose-accreditation/


Microsoft sues domain name registrar for typo squatting

Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/int...sues-domain-name-registrar-for-typosquatting/
 
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There are two sides to every story (or coin) - fair and equitable laws are essential. Archaic laws simply amended on a reactive basis are as dangerous as NO LAW at all (LAWLESSNESS). Also specifics and implementation is KEY to being fair and equitable. While the counsel for Key Systems said that if the ruling is not over turned this could lead possibly to the whole business model being endangered.

Here are two key paras and MY KEY highlighted terms (question is what is the specifics and threshold of tolerance - 36 hours may be enough to determine violation but sufficient and irrefutable evidence is a must):

Universal had wanted to prevent unauthorized distribution of Robin Thicke’s album Blurred Lines, said Volker Greimann, Key-Systems’ general counsel, in an email.While Key-Systems argued that it was not responsible for the copyright infringement, the court ruled that the registrar had a duty to investigate after notification of infringing activity and had to take corrective action in case of obvious violations, Greimann said.
If someone notifies the registrar of a clear violation of the law, it must examine the specific allegation immediately and close the domain if necessary, the court ruled.
 

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