HK’s ISPs forced to reveal P2P users data.
A ruling in Hong Kong’s High Court last week could lead to a flurry of applications from copyright owners seeking information about the identity of alleged internet infringers.
Four Hong Kong Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were ordered to hand over information about users suspected of breaching copyright rules by uploading music files onto the internet.
In his ruling on January 26, Justice Poon said that exemptions in the data protection rules in Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, which allow data to be released if it will prevent “unlawful or seriously improper conduct”, applied to civil torts as well as to crimes.
“I rule that the phrase ‘unlawful and seriously improper conduct’ in section 58(1)(d), on a proper construction, covers tortious conduct, including copyright infringement,” said Justice Poon.
Seven record companies, including Sony BMG and Cinepoly, asked the Court to grant a Norwich Pharmacal order, forcing the ISPs to hand over data about 22 alleged copyright infringers.
according to the judge: “Some online copyright infringers may well think that they will never be caught because of the cloak of anonymity created by the P2P programs. They are wrong….The court can and will, upon a successful application, pull back the cloak and expose their true identity. It is not an intrusion into their privacy. It does not even lie in their mouths to say so. For protection of privacy is never and cannot be used as a shield to enable them to commit civil wrongs with impunity,”
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