The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has issued a judgement in case C-597/19 M.I.C.M. whereby it ruled that:
- uploading pieces of a media file onto a peer-to-peer network constitutes making available to the public within the meaning of EU law.
- holders of intellectual property rights may benefit from the system of protection of those rights, but its request for information, in particular, must be non-abusive, justified and proportionate.
- systematic registration of IP addresses of users and the communication of their names and postal addresses to that holder of intellectual property rights or to a third party in order to enable an action for damages to be brought are permissible under certain conditions.