The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that EU laws do not prevent Internet service providers from disclosing data to copyright holders for the purpose of identifying file-sharing violators, Out-Law.com reports. The ECJ ruled that the Data Retention Directive "must be interpreted as not precluding the application of national legislation based on (the Intellectual Property Rights Directive) which, in order to identify an Internet subscriber or user, permits an Internet service provider in civil proceedings to be ordered to give a copyright holder or its representative information on the subscriber to whom the Internet service provider provided an IP address which was allegedly used in an infringement, since that legislation does not fall within the material scope of" the directive.
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