The European Court of Justice said that the Scarlet ISP would be infringing user privacy if it imposed such filters.

This comes after it had been ordered in 2007 to filter out content belonging to members of the Sabam rights society.

Earlier this week the New Zealand government rushed through new anti-piracy legislation, while ministers in Holland are proposing a change to the law that would make downloading from unlicensed sites illegal for the first time.