SABAM, a company that represents musicians and protects copyrighted work, brought an action before a Belgian court against Netlog, a social network, in order to impose a filtering system that would prevent making available its clients work without permission. Before issuing a decision, the Belgian court referred a preliminary question to the ECJ- whether the proposed filtering mechanism was compatible with the EU acquis. The ECJ found the filtering mechanism would violate principles contained in Directives 2000/31, Directive 2001/29, and Directive 2004/48, as well as fundamental rights such as the freedom of information and the protection of personal data.