MONTREAL—In the wake of years of recurrent intellectual property infractions against most of the works of Disques à Tempo, the Court of Quebec ruled yesterday in Montreal against the owner of fuza.fr, Fan2zik and several other web sites.
It was an important trial that tested Canada’s new intellectual property law and the Berne Convention to which both Canada and France are signatories, that let rights holders defend their rights in the jurisdiction of their choice. In this case, the infractions were committed by a French citizen but the damages were inflicted upon Disques à Tempo in Quebec.
The Court ruled orally from the bench on three counts in making its judgement, with the written version to follow in the weeks to come, to the effect that the Court of Quebec is perfectly competent in the matter that was raised and that the Court welcomed the occasion to undertake the case.
The Court also noted the absence of defendant Benjamin Antigny during the hearings and after putting out a call for Antigny over the Montreal courthouse intercom system, examined and declared that it was satisfied by the evidence, decided that the case could proceed in absentia, however, given the significance of the questions raised by Disques à Tempo in terms of new provisions of Canada’s new intellectual property law with respect to online streaming and downloading, it agreed to hear all of the evidence and conduct a full trial.
After hearing and reviewing all the evidence, the judge, concluded that Benjamin Antigny had infringed upon Disques à Tempo’s intellectual property rights, owned by Roger-Luc Chayer, affirmed that Roger-Luc Chayer was Disques à Tempo’s sole rights holder. It confirmed that the web site fuza.fr owned by Benjamin Antigny, which the server OVH has since shut down, had illegally and without permission broadcast and offered free-of-charge 26 images belonging to Disques à Tempo, which failed to respect his server OVH’S user agreement and that he had lied about the legality of his conduct on OVH, which repeatedly violated Disques à Tempo’s rights and that, in accordance with Canada’s law and the Berne Convention, it sentenced the perpetrator of the fraud to pay $10,000 in damages and required Antigny to pay Disque à Tempo’s court costs, with interest and penalties since 2015, which significantly increased the amount of the judgement.
“I asked for $10,000 for infringing my rights and I received $10,000, so I can’t help but be pleased by a firm ruling against a cyberpirate,” stated Disques à Tempo owner Roger-Luc Chayer. “I hope that this judgement will serve to deter those who might otherwise illegally distribute Disques à Tempo’s works that they will hit a wall with this judgement, for which has established new jurisprudence.”
It’s worth noting that a representative of the firm OVH who attended the trial not only affirmed the fiolations but also explained to the judge the actions that it had taken against Bemjamin Antigny to put a stop to his use of the firms servers.
Disques à Tempo had already, in 2014 won an out-of-court settlement against the American web site MySpace, following another Court of Québec casea brough by Disques à Tempo.
« When I produce a record, I do it with my own unsubsidized money, time, creativity and experience, and to see these pirates repeatedly broadcast my works around the world without permission—which, in fuza.fr’s case Benjamin Antigny’s fourth offence, I had no choice but to sue him in order to put an end to his illegal actions which will henceforth incur heavy financial penalties in France if he doesn’t put a stop to these practices,” the journalist and musician firmly asserted.