EU Court of Justice rejects web piracy filter

The European Court of Justice has ruled that content owners cannot ask ISPs to filter out illegal content.

The ruling could have implications for the creative industries as they attempt to crack down on piracy.

The court said that while content providers can ask ISPs to block specific sites, wider filtering was in breach of the E-Commerce Directive.

A Belgian court had previously ruled that a local rights holder could force an ISP to filter content.

The case stems back to 2004 when SABAM, a Belgian company responsible for authorising music rights, discovered that customers of local ISP Scarlet were downloading music illegally via peer-to-peer networks.