The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled in a Judgment (Case No. I ZR 153/17) of 10 December 2020 ruled that platforms such as YouTube need only disclose users' names and addresses in the event of copyright infringements. Further Data such as e-mail addresses, telephone numbers or IP addresses, on the other hand, may be withheld from the rights holder. The BHG's ruling is thus in line with the ruling of the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) preliminary examination proceedings of July 2020.
The specific case concerned two films of the Constantin Film distribution company, which a YouTube user had published on the video platform. The company then demanded that the Google subsidiary hand over the user's full name and address. YouTube then explained that such data is not collected and therefore cannot be handed over. Constantin-Film then demanded that the e-mail address, telephone number and IP address be handed over in order to be able to identify the YouTube user.
YouTube stores telephone numbers and IP addresses
When registering, YouTube requires its users to provide not only their e-mail address but also their name and date of birth, as well as consent to the storage of their IP address. However, the data provided is not verified. In addition, users must provide a phone number if they want to upload videos longer than 15 minutes.
The BGH justified its decision by stating that Paragraphs 101 of the Copyright Act does not include a right to information about telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of users.
"Nor does it include information on the files used to upload infringing files IP addresses or the IP addresses last used by users of the Services to access their account".
FEDERAL SUPREME COURT
The EU Copyright Directive of 2004 defines as address in Article 8 only "addresses". According to the judges, there is no indication that legislation in Germany is intended to expand this interpretation of the EU Directive to include further data. A "further (dynamic) interpretation of the law" as well as an "analogous application" of the Copyright Act is therefore excluded according to the BGH. Also from the Clause 242 of the German Civil Code (BGB) there is no right to information about "name and address" of Constantin-Film against YouTube.
