ECJ – JUDGMENT OF 29.01.2008, PROMUSICAE C-275/06, – INFORMATION SOCIETY – PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA – OBLIGATION OF DISCLOSURE OF PROVIDERS OF SERVICES, PROTECTION OF COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS

Abstract

The Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-275/06, Promusicae, deals with one of the problematic situations brought about by the information society, which is the difficult conciliation between the protection of the right to respect for private life, specially the confidentiality of personal data, on the one hand, and the rights to protection of copyright and to an effective remedy, on the other. The Spanish court asks the Court of Justice of the European Communities whether Community law permit Member States to limit to the context of a criminal investigation or to safeguard public security and national defence, thus excluding civil proceedings, the duty to retain and make available connection and traffic data generated by the communications established during the supply of an information society service. The Court of Justice reaffirms the normative value of the fundamental rights, though, for the defence of the rights to the intellectual property and to protection of copyright, it admits the possibility of interferences into the right to the protection of personal information and, therefore, into the right to respect for private life, which raises some doubts on the way of achieving the suitable balance among all of them.