Content owners in nearly every country have tried various strategies to get compensation for losses due to piracy. But copyright owners in Belgium have a bold new tactic: go after Internet service providers in court, demanding 3.4 percent of the fees their customers pay for Internet service.

The lawsuit has been brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers, known as Sabam. The group's claim is similar to the blank-media levy that exists in Canada. It seems to be based on the assumption that a particular medium is used to break copyright law, and therefore all the users of that media should rightly be required to pay a tax. However, Canada's blank media tax was approved by its legislature. To get their 3.4 percent cut, Belgian authors, composers, and publishers are hoping to bypass the legislature with a lawsuit.

Belgium is a country where courts have a track record of favoring legacy media companies in their battles against Internet companies. Google, for instance, has fought lengthy court battles with newspapers in that country without much success. But the move to go after the nation's own ISPs is a new one.

The group told Telecompaper, a Dutch publication, that it expects EU law to include "a larger number of actors" in delivering communications and collecting copyright fees. Sabam said it attempted to negotiate with Belgian ISPs but filed its court case when they couldn't strike a deal.

Sabam has been demanding such fees since 2011, according to IDG News. A group of Belgian ISPs told IDG that Sabam's attempt to litigate its way to an Internet tax "lacks any legal basis."