A notice and takedown request does not have to include the URL of the infringing content, Italy's Supreme Court has ruled. On Tuesday, March 19, the court issued two rulings after television station Radio Televisive Italiane (RTI) accused Yahoo! of hosting material that infringed RTI's copyright on its video-sharing portal. In its decision, the Supreme Court determined that a notice and takedown request does not have to include the URL of the infringing content and that the submission of such a request also imposes a 'stay down' obligation on the provider, meaning they must prevent the re-uploading of the same infringing content. The court determined that a simple indication of the title of the infringing content could be enough, and a URL was not always needed. It said a URL is required only when "indispensable" to identify the infringing content. The Milan Court of Appeal must now assess whether, at the time when the infringing content was uploaded, it was possible for Yahoo! to identify the infringing videos through the titles of the videos alone. Regarding Yahoo!'s search engine, RTI alleged that by providing hyperlinks and embedded links to the infringing content, Yahoo directly infringed its copyright.

Source: www.worldipreview.com