After more than four years of work, the Copyright Clearing House for the Internet (Clearingstelle Urheberrecht im Internet, CUII), established in 2021, has declared itself "successful in the fight against criminal business models on the Internet." At the same time, it is responding to one of the main points of criticism, namely that a private body imposes restrictions on websites that are sensitive in terms of fundamental rights, largely unchecked and behind closed doors. The procedure is now to be further developed so that courts review every restriction, the organization announced on Wednesday.
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This will "establish an effective and legally secure procedure," according to the clearing house, whose members include major providers such as Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica, and 1&1. On the rights holders' side, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, the Federal Association of the Music Industry, the Games Industry Association, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), Sky, and Gema are among those represented.
"Under current law, websites with an illegal business model can be blocked by access providers," explained the chairman of the CUII steering committee, Berlin lawyer Jan Bernd Nordemann. For the association, it is "a top priority that only justified blocks are implemented. The new court system guarantees this "also in the future."
Hundreds of domains already more difficult to access
According to the association, "25 websites with many hundreds of domains" have been blocked under the previous system. Their operators had deliberately infringed copyright. They made protected content from the fields of film, music, sports, games, books, and magazines accessible "intentionally and without permission." As a rule, it is not possible to take direct action against the creators "because they hide behind the anonymity of the internet."
Streaming portals for films and series such as kinox.to, streamkiste.tv, filmfans.org, and serienfans.org have already been blacklisted, although the list is not officially published. Sites for music and game downloads are also included.
The blocking of the shadow library Sci-Hub is considered particularly critical. The Society for Civil Rights (GFF) criticizes that numerous legal open access publications are also collected there. The block thus has "far-reaching consequences for freedom of science and information." Activists campaigning against online censorship have made the affected domains public on the website cuiiliste.de. They criticized that 41 domains were wrongfully blocked last year.
The CUII refers to a list of "blocking recommendations." However, the access providers involved usually implement these recommendations. The Berlin cable network operator Tele Columbus, which offers its services under the umbrella brand Pÿur, emphasizes, however, that "we only implement network blocks on official orders." Here, too, it is necessary to examine the legal validity of the relevant orders and whether the applicants were entitled to them.
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