Uitspraak Nº C/09/586304 / KG ZA 20-8. Rechtbank Den Haag, 2020-04-30

• ECLI: ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2020:3980
• Docket Number: C/09/586304 / KG ZA 20-8
• Date: 30 Abril 2020
• Court: Rechtbank Den Haag (Neederland)

vonnis

RECHTBANK DEN HAAG

Team handel

zaaknummer / rolnummer: C/09/586304 / KG ZA 20-8

Vonnis in kort geding van 30 april 2020

in de zaak van

de rechtspersoon naar vreemd recht

DISH NETWORK L.L.C.,

te Englewood, Verenigde Staten van Amerika,

eiseres,

advocaat mr. K.A.J. Bisschop te Amsterdam,

tegen

WORLDSTREAM B.V.,

te Naaldwijk,

gedaagde,

advocaat mr. L. Keukens te Amsterdam.

Partijen zullen hierna Dish Network en WorldStream genoemd worden. De zaak is voor Dish Network inhoudelijk behandeld door mr. Bisschop voornoemd en mr. C. Sijm, advocaat te Amsterdam en voor WorldStream door mr. Keukens voornoemd en mr. H.R. Goudsmit, advocaat te Amsterdam.

1 De procedure

1.1.

Het verloop van de procedure blijkt uit:

• -

  de dagvaarding van 9 januari 2020;

• -

  de akte houdende overlegging producties van Dish Network, ingekomen ter griffie op 13 januari 2020, met producties 1 tot en met 7;

• -

  de akte overlegging producties van WorldStream, ingekomen ter griffie op 7 februari 2020, met producties 1 tot en met 6;

• -

  de akte houdende overlegging aanvullende producties tevens wijziging van eis van Dish Network, ingekomen ter griffie op 14 februari 2020, met producties 8 en 9;

• -

  de akte houdende overlegging aanvullende productie van Dish Network, ingekomen ter griffie op 17 februari 2020, met productie 10;

• -

  het als productie 7 overgelegde aanvullende kostenoverzicht van WorldStream, ingekomen ter griffie op 26 februari 2020;

• -

  de geactualiseerde kostenopgave van Dish Network, ingekomen ter griffie op 27 februari 2020;

• -

  de mondelinge behandeling van 28 februari 2020 en de ter gelegenheid daarvan overgelegde pleitnotities van Dish Network en WorldStream.

1.2.

Vonnis is nader bepaald op heden.

2 De feiten

2.1.

Dish Network is een aanbieder van betaalde televisie in de Verenigde Staten. Zij levert auteursrechtelijke beschermde programmering aan miljoenen abonnees in het hele land. Ze biedt meer dan 400 zenders aan in 27 verschillende talen. Dish Network doet dit ofwel door satellietlevering ofwel met behulp van een openbare internetinfrastructuur.

2.2.

WorldStream is een in 2014 opgerichte internet service provider. Zij levert wereldwijd onbeheerde hosting diensten aan haar klanten, te weten uitsluitend de hardware en het besturingssysteem.

2.3.

De International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (hierna: IBCAP) en de Amerikaanse advocaat van Dish Network hebben WorldStream namens Dish Network vanaf juli 2018 verschillende malen aangeschreven met ‘notice and take down’ en ‘cease and desist’ verzoeken. WorldStream heeft vervolgens verschillende door haar uitgegeven IP-adressen geblokkeerd.

2.4.

Bij brief van 19 november 2019 heeft de Nederlandse advocaat van Dish Network WorldStream een brief gestuurd waarin - onder meer - is opgenomen:

(…)

DISH Network holds the exclusive rights to distribute and publicly perform in the United States, by means including satellite, OTT, IPTV and Internet, the programs that make up copyright protected channels. DISH Network contracts for and licenses rights for the international channels distributed on its platforms from channel owners and their agents, including Al Jazeera Media Network, ARY Digital USA LLC, B4U U.S., GEO USA LLC, Hum Network Limited, MBC FZ LLC; MSM Asia Limited, International Media Distribution (Luxembourg) S.A.R.L., World Span Media Consulting, Inc.; and Dream Media ("Content Owners").

It has come to the attention of my client that your company WorldStream B.V. ("WorldStream") provides hosting services of the following distributed protected channels via SatOcean IPTV and Nasa IPTV. This includes, without limitation, Al Arabiya, Al Hayah 1, Al Jazeera Arabic News, Al Jazeera Mubasher, ART Cima, ARY Digital, B4U Music, CBC, CBC Drama, Dream 2, Future TV, GEO News, Geo TV, Hekayat, Hum TV, Hum World, LBC, LDC, MBC1, MBC Drama, MBC Kids (a/k/a MBC3); MBC Masr, Melody Classic, SAB and SET Max ("Protected Content") in the United States.

Customers of WorldStream are operating the SatOcean IPTV and Nasa IPTV services using a number of IP addresses. WorldStream customer SatOcean IPTV is in any event using the following IP address: [IP-adres 1] . WorldStream customer Nasa IPTV is any event using the following IP addresses: [IP-adres 2] ; [IP-adres 3] and [IP-adres 4] .

The displaying and making available to the public of the Protected Content via SatOcean IPTV and/or Nasa IPTV constitute infringements of DISH Network's exclusive rights, as well as an unlawful act against DISH Network under United States copyright law(…). DISH Network did not provide any authorization to host, store, index, provide access, or in any way contribute to the infringement of DISH Network's Protected Content.

In addition, WorldStream, as a party that performs hosting, is liable for the infringing activities pursuant to article 6:196c(4) of the Dutch Civil Code, unless it is not aware (or reasonably could not be aware) of the infringing activities.(…) WorldStream cannot state that it was not aware of the infringing activities because DISH Network has sent several letters with notice-and-takedown requests to WorldStream.

WorldStream’s customers (most of them are unknown to DISH Network) who use the servers of WorldStream to host and store Protected Content and stream it to consumers infringe also DISH Network’s exclusive rights and act unlawful against DISH Network. Dish Network has sent them (the customers to the extent known to DISH Networks) also several letters with notice-and-takedown requests. Unfortunately, neither WorldStream nor its customers has complied with the notice-and-takedown requests yet.

In addition, there are more WorldStream customers who infringe the exclusive rights of DISH Network but they are unknown to DISH Network. Only WorldStream has this information. This means that it is for DISH Network impossible to take action against these unknown infringers. In view of the above, DISH Network has valid legal grounds in obtaining identifying personal data of these customers from WorldStream.(…)

In order to prevent further legal actions, we request you, pursuant to section 843a DCCP, to provide us within 5 days after receiving this letter with:

 all identifying data of its customers that is making or has made use of WorldStream's services as regards to distribute the Protected Content;

 information regarding the use of the servers on which WorldStream's customers host and store or have hosted and stored Protected Content; specifically:

o an overview of the traffic and use data of the customer's servers, including the number of visitors and the number of streams;

o a recent copy or a backup of the servers from the customers of WorldStream on which the Protected Content is or has been hosted and stored;

o all historical data regarding the legal relationship between WorldStream and its customers, including the agreement between these parties and relevant support tickets.

(…)

2.5.

In reactie op de brief heeft WorldStream op 19 november 2019 per e-mail - onder meer - als volgt gereageerd:

WorldStream offers unmanaged dedicated servers to its customers. This means that we only have physical access to the server. We do not have login credentials of the server and do not control the traffic that the server is emitting nor the content which is placed on the server.

You’ve stated that Worldstream (or our customers) did not comply with the notice-and-takedown requests yet. We can not speak on behalf of our customers as we are not allowed to see the traffic of our customers. However, WorldStream has taken action against the customers by nullrouting/blocking multiple IP-addresses after a notification regarding copyright issues. The notifications were sent by the law firm " [X] LLC", also on behalf of your client, DISH Network. After processing the messages, we have also replied to the sender. We also stated that they can let us know if they require any further information or action from Worldstream.

In the past months we have received multiple messages from the law firm [X] LLC, on behalf of your client, DISH Network, to which we all replied.

In one of the more recent messages, [A] , an employee of the law firm [X] LLC, stated that he did not receive a response from us for three months to several cases. To straighten out this miscommunication, we replied with the following message:

“We were very surprise [sic, vzr] by your message stating that you did not receive any updates from us since June. As we replied to every message we have received from you. Please find attached an example reply to you.”

In a reaction to our message [A] stated:

“Thank you. I believe your emails were sent to someone else in our office, so I was perhaps mistaken about that. I appreciate your cooperating with us to hold your customers accountable for copyright infringements”

(…)

In regards to the IP-addresses;

[IP-adres 1] has been blocked on Wed, 11 Sep 2019 15:54:01 (+0200)

[IP-adres 4] has been blocked on Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:23:01 (+0200)

[IP-adres 2] has been blocked on Tue, 19 Nov 2019 16:24:02 (+0100)

[IP-adres 3] has been blocked on Tue, 19 Nov 2019 16:24:02 (+0100)

Please also see the attachments for the proof of blocking the IP-addreses [sic, vzr].

(…)

As we do understand your concerns regarding this issue. We have thought of an alternative. If you are prepared to grant a safeguard against damage that Worldstream B.V. suffers as a result of non-compliance with the GDPR/AVG, Worldstream B.V. can provide the personal data without risk.

(…)

3 Het geschil

3.1.

Dish Network vordert na wijziging van eis - dat de voorzieningenrechter bij...