By Jacqueline Clover and Helena Marttila-Bridge
On 5 February 2013, the English High Court handed down a judgment in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp & Ors v Harris & Ors [2013] EWHC 159 (Ch), according to which copyright owners have no proprietary rights to the money derived from infringement of their copyright.
The case involved an indexing website, Newzbin2, which made available to its users infringing copies of films and TV shows. The claimants, who were owners or exclusive licensees of the copyright in those works, started copyright infringement proceedings against Newzbin2’s operator and companies alleged to have links to the website. The claimants asked the High Court to grant proprietary injunctions over the proceeds that the defendants had derived from the copyright infringement. The injunctions would have prevented the defendants from dealing in or disposing of the proceeds.
Continue Reading The English High Court Rules that a Copyright Infringer Is a Trespasser, Not a Thief