Thursday, December 14, 2006

CUFADM02A Posting: Finding / Describing a Copyright, Licensing or Intellectual Property

Search method:
Using Google I did a search for "Music copyright dispute cases", and I found a case relating to the downloading of copyrighted music and reproduction of the files by an Internet cafe. Then I used the same search engine but I put in the name of the case to find more information.

The Case in question:
The article describes a case in the London High Court about an Internet cafe that was involved in distributing, via burnt cds, copyrighted music files. The BPI or British Phonographic Industry who act on behalf of Sony, EMI and Universal conducted an investigation of the Cafes' in question throughout 8 UK cities and found hundreds of music files on computer hard drives.
http://www.out-law.com/page-3280
Out-Law news 29/1/03

An exception to the Copyright, design and patents act 1988 allows someone to record a TV or Cable program to watch at a later date known as "The home recording Internet cafe in question tried to say that they were acting within these guidelines however the Judge stated that the "excessive business operation" of the cafe' could hardly be considered private or domestic use.
http://www.legalday.co.uk/lexnex/simkins/simkins190203.htm
Legal Day Legal commentary 19/2/2003


Initially the BPI tried to settle out of court ordering the cafe to pay a sum of 1 million pounds, when refused the amount was lowered to 100,000 pounds, but the BPI sued after details of the case were disclosed to the media.

The cafe was found guilty of music piracy, the preceding judge dismissed their defence claims as "Fallacious and speculative" during his verdict. The sentence is yet to be imposed but a sum of around 500,00 pounds is expected by many industry insiders.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20030128-667.html
Wayne Hardman 1/28/2003

All information obtained from these sites:

Exception", the
  • http://www.legalday.co.uk
  • http://www.out-law.com
  • http://arstechnica.com




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