Los Angeles - A German court has ruled that the identities of ISP subscribers should not be disclosed as part of potential file-sharing copyright investigations, finding that such measures can only be used for "heavy" crimes like terrorism, murder or child pornography, TorrentFreak reports. The Federal Constitutional Court's (FCC) ruling will stand for six months, after which time it could be made final.

Earlier this week, Italy's government agency that deals with privacy issues made a similar finding, ruling that companies like Logistep that harvest IP addresses from file-swappers for use in copyright investigations are breaking the law.

The rulings in Germany and Italy come in sharp contrast to recent actions in France and Japan, where ISPs are now canceling accounts of repeat file-swappers, and in England, which is considering a similar "three-strikes" proposal.

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http://snipurl.com/228li (TorrentFreak)

http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/en/index.html