France’s Supreme Court, the Cour de Cassation, has ruled that local recorded music industry body SNEP is entitled to seek an order against Google involving its “auto-complete” function.
SNEP, IFPI‘s national group in France, has welcomed the judgment – delivered on July 12th – which says that removing specific pirate terms from auto-complete would be an appropriate and proportionate measure.
SNEP had sought an order requiring Google to remove piracy terms “torrent”, “megaupload” and “rapidshare” from its “auto complete” search results.
This was rejected by the lower court and Court of Appeal in 2011.
However, the Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeal’s ruling, considering that Google is contributing to copyright infringements by orientating users to illegal links through its auto complete function.
The case will now be sent back to the Court of Appeal for a final decision.Music Business Worldwide
