Germany's Copyright Clearing House now requires courts for website blocks

61 nsdfg 15 8/24/2025, 12:06:17 PM heise.de ↗

Comments (15)

ACCount37 · 3h ago
This shouldn't exist at all. But it probably beats it existing and being accountable to no one.
shazbotter · 2h ago
Unlikely. I suspect this will be a rubber stamp mill just like FISA in the United States.
gruez · 2h ago
>This shouldn't exist at all

If you think copyrights should exist at all, website blocks must exist as well, otherwise copyrights become unenforceable. Blocking straightforwardly copyright infringement sites (eg. a site that streams full episodes of TV shows) is a pretty logical consequence of a government enforcing its copyright laws.

ACCount37 · 2h ago
I'd rather copyright be unenforceable then.

"Hide piracy web sites from mainstream search engines" is the extent of what I'm willing to tolerate. Tools that allow for blocking of arbitrary websites entirely should not exist at all.

gruez · 2h ago
>Tools that allow for blocking of arbitrary websites entirely should not exist at all.

Does this include websites for drugs, CSAM, human trafficking, or other criminal activity?

ACCount37 · 2h ago
Yes.

If those are real world criminal activities with real world impacts, you should go after the perpetrators instead of playing the shell game with websites.

You can't make violent criminals disappear by sweeping them under the rug.

gruez · 2h ago
Isn't that kind of like saying "it's fine to have hit-for-hire ads in newspaper classifieds[1], because if hit-for-hire is really a problem they can just go after the hitmen/clients?". I think most people wouldn't tolerate criminal activity being advertised in the open, even though they know forcing such activity to go underground wouldn't prevent the criminal activity from happening.

[1] ignoring how you'd anonymously place/respond to the ads

AAAAaccountAAAA · 1h ago
That's not a good example imo, since newspaper ads are in any case a curated platform.
gruez · 1h ago
>since newspaper ads are in any case a curated platform.

They are? You just pay $100 (or whatever) and it gets posted. The only curation that might happen is the fact that a human probably has to manually insert it into the draft, because the newspaper hasn't developed proper automation for this sort of stuff. Moreover this is easily side-stepped by replacing "newspaper classifieds" with "ads stapled onto power poles" or "ads placed online" (in which case it probably is automated and there's no human review).

bigbadfeline · 10m ago
> Isn't that kind of like saying "it's fine to have hit-for-hire ads in newspaper classifieds"

No, it's not "kind of" in legal sense. Genaral information and specific threats are treated differently under the law. Genaral info us free speech. Specific threats are criminal intent and conspiracy - all punishable.

nadermx · 2h ago
Actually the berne convention gives you right to sue in the jurisdiction where your rights are being violated.

Given there is some sort of fair use in most jurisidictions, and its compeltly with in even europeans rights to save entire movies for personal use, the parent comment to you is right. Tools exist for them to enforce them by going after the domain registrar or hosting provider.

All site blocking does is trample on rights over "alleged" infrignment.

gruez · 2h ago
>Actually the berne convention gives you right to sue in the jurisdiction where your rights are being violated.

I don't get it, is your claim that the rightsholders can sue in German courts and get an injunction if they want sites blocked, or that site blocks shouldn't be needed at all because suing people (but not blocking the sites) is an adequate remedy for infringement?

> Tools exist for them to enforce them by going after the domain registrar or hosting provider.

What if the domain registrar or hosting provider is in another country? If some Chinese company is infringing on some German company's IP, is your response to tell them to sue them in China, rather than have the goods be blocked at the border?

>Given there is some sort of fair use in most jurisidictions, and its compeltly with in even europeans rights to save entire movies for personal use, the parent comment to you is right.

Unless there's some context that's missing from the article, the sites being blocked seems like they're straightforwardly committing copyright infringement. It's not like youtube-dl is being taken down or whatever. "movie streaming sites are fine because there's a tiny chance that it's used by someone who already owns the movie" seems like a flimsy excuse to allow such sites to continue operating.

nadermx · 2h ago
>I don't get it, is your claim that the rightsholders can sue in German courts and get an injunction if they want sites blocked, or that site blocks shouldn't be needed at all because suing people (but not blocking the sites) is an adequate remedy for infringement?

Yet your own response seems to imply you do get it?

>What if the domain registrar or hosting provider is in another country? If some Chinese company is infringing on some German company's IP, is your response to tell them to sue them in China, rather than have the goods be blocked at the border?

Correct. As the infrigment is happening in China, not in Germany. Just because you don't like the way a law works, doesn't mean you can suddenly claim your rights are being violated some where else.

>Unless there's some context that's missing from the article, the sites being blocked seems like they're straightforwardly committing copyright infringement. It's not like youtube-dl is being taken down or whatever. "movie streaming sites are fine because there's a tiny chance that it's used by someone who already owns the movie" seems like a flimsy excuse to allow such sites to continue operating.

Yes because a tiny chance of innocence should be completely ignored according to your logic, and given that copyright infringement carries criminal penalties and prison. I hope it's not you who ends up in that situation.

gruez · 2h ago
>Yet your own response seems to imply you do get it?

So which one is it?

>Correct. As the infrigment is happening in China, not in Germany. Just because you don't like the way a law works, doesn't mean you can suddenly claim your rights are being violated some where else.

Yet, in most countries you can get an injunction (ie. a "block") for infringing goods produced abroad to be seized at the border. It's within the government's remit to regulate what happens within its own borders, even if the infringing product (or website) is outside its borders.

>Yes because a tiny chance of innocence should be completely ignored according to your logic, and given that these carry criminal penalties and prison. I hope it's not you who ends up in that situation.

Where did "criminal penalties and prison" come from? We're talking about sites that are obviously engaging in copyright infringement. I'm not sure how you went from that to "send everyone with an open plex server to the gulag".

Rochus · 1h ago
Instead the police no longer respond when citizens are physically robbed (e.g. https://www.blick.ch/schweiz/basel/erst-ab-einem-warenwert-v... or https://www.hbb-ev.de/meldungen/ladendiebstahl-im-einzelhand...). The government cares more for copyright trolls.