The end of June brought Court of First Instance in Brussels to rule a decision ordering Scarlet, one of Belgium's leading ISPs, to start blocking copyrighted material that passes through its network.
The court gave the ISP six months to implement one or more technologies recommended by a court-appointed expert, and threatened the company with fines of up to 2,500 euros per day (roughly US$3,400) if it fails to comply.
The decision by the Belgian court has no direct impact on ISPs in the United States. However, the court's conclusion that technology now exists that makes it possible for ISPs to block infringing packets of data will get a warm welcome from content producers located around the world, including those in the U.S.
One of the technologies identified by the court expert in Belgium is Audible Magic , a familiar player in the content-filtering world. Audible Magic has been working with several companies, including YouTube, to help solve the problem of infringing user-uploaded content.
There is no word yet as to whether the Scarlet ISP will select Audible Magic as its solution (or one of them), but there is little doubt that that the concept of content filtering by Internet middlemen is gaining steam.
