Cour de Cassation, Syndicat National des Producteurs de Music (SNEP) v. Google France

Document type
Court Decision
Country
Google is liable for suggesting in its auto-suggest tool, words such as “Torrent”, “Megaupload” or “Rapidshare” when users type in names of artists or bands in the Google search bar, because it makes it possible to infringe copyright and/or neighboring rights by directing Internet’s searches towards services that offer illegal downloading. Google must implement the measures requested (stop associating determined keywords with the terms used in search) regardless of the possibility to easily circumvent these measures: as soon as they are aimed at contributing to remedy the situation by making it more difficult to find illegal sites, the measures do not have to be perfect.
Country
Year
2012
Topic, claim, or defense
Copyright
Document type
Court Decision
Issuing entity
Highest Domestic/National (including State) Court
Type of service provider
Search Engine or Index
OSP obligation considered
Other
Type of law
Civil
General effect on immunity
Weakens Immunity