T-Mobile Austria has asked the regulator RTR to clarify the regulatory position on blocking pirate websites when it comes to net neutrality. ISPs may block illegal content-sharing sites if warned by copyright holders, but this may mean they are violating the network neutrality rules of the EU.
The background to T-Mobile's request is the very unsatisfactory legal situation, in which operators have no opportunity to behave in conformity with the law, the company said. The operator is forced when alerted by the copyright owner to act on possible infringements. At the same time, it is violating the principle of net neutrality by setting up a ban.
T-Mobile reported itself to RTR for the recent introduction of a ban on proxy sites associated with the Pirate Bay, following the receipt of a warning from the copyright owners about possible infringements. The Supreme Court (OGH) decided already that warnings from copyright holders are sufficient to block a website in question. However, this decision has been put in question by the EU Telecom Single Market (TSM) regulation, which states that network blocking may only be allowed by court or administrative order. Anything else would be a violation of net neutrality.
Due to the TSM regulation, T-Mobile has not followed these warnings so far, so as not to be guilty of a breach of net neutrality. The consequences were lawsuits, which led in each case to interim injunctions, which finally led to the implementation of the network barriers. The unpleasant side effect were high personnel costs as well as high costs for the legal proceedings over proxy sites, the company said.
