Flash: Advice to European court: ISP does not have reveal customer's identity

MarketWatch reports that an adviser to the European Court of Justice has stated that ISPs in the EU are not required to reveal the identity of customers suspected of downloading unlicensed music files. According to the article, the adviser's comments are in response to a civil lawsuit filed by Spanish music industry association Promusicae which demands that Spanish ISP Telefonica reveal the identities of subscribers who allegedly downloaded unlicensed music files. The article reports that the court's panel of judges will review the adviser's comments before making a final ruling in late 2007. The article claims that the panel follows their advisers' recommendations about 80% of the time. The ruling will also be of interest to the case of the ISP Scarlet in the Brussels court in as far as privacy is concerned.