Authorising infringement without licence of owner

EMI Records Ltd and other companies v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd and other companies: [2013] EWHC 379 (Ch), 28 February 2013, LSG, 11 March

The claimant companies were record companies. The defendants were the six main retail internet service providers in the UK. The proceedings arose out of the illegal downloading of, inter alia, music via torrent files hosted on a number of peer-to-peer file-sharing websites. Those websites were hosted by the defendants. The claimants sought injunctions against the defendants pursuant to s97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which implemented art 8(3) of the European Parliament and Council Directive (EC) 2001/29 (on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society) (the Directive), requiring the defendants to block or impede access by their customers to websites. Although the defendants did not oppose the making of the order, it was for the claimants to convince the court as to its necessity.