Postal addresses still matter

In 2013 and 2014, some people uploaded the movies Parker and Scary Movie 5 to YouTube. The copyright holder of those movies requested Google / YouTube to provide it with information about the infringers. Google provided some information but it was fictitious user names. The copyright holder then requested more information about the infringers such as the uploader's email addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses. Google said no. The copyright holder then sued.

Under Directive (2004/48/EC) on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, a judicial authority can order the disclosure of the addresses of infringers. The question is whether addresses includes email addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that addresses under the Directive did not include email addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses (see Case C-264/19 Constantin Film Verleih GmbH v YouTube LLC, EU:C:2020:542, (9 July 2020)).

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