Decision of the District Court in Lublin of 31 July 2017, commentary by Janusz Piotr Kolczyński, attorney-at-law
26.10.2017.
Another commentary of Janusz Piotr Kolczyński, attorney-at-law, for Dziennik Gazety Prawnej. The commentary refers to the recently issued decision of the District Court in Lublin in case with ref. No. I C 758/16 pertaining to the issue of copyright trolling.
Substance of Dispute
The petition in the case was lodged by a publisher of foreign language textbooks which, some time earlier, were made available illegally via the Chomikuj.pl website. It is probable that in a significant number of cases, the “sharing” persons were not aware of the consequences of making the files available to other users.
PLN 3,5000 or Lawsuit
The people who downloaded the textbook and were identified by the publisher received a proposal to pay the amount of PLN 3,500.00 in exchange for not notifying the case to the prosecution office. The number of people who settled the fee is unknown, but with respect to those who did not agree for such settlement, penal proceedings were initiated. In many cases, the users were found guilty and in some cases the courts conditionally discontinued the proceedings. In case of motions for redressing damages, decisions were issued where the amount of PLN 3,500.00 was adjudged or only the nominal price of just one textbook, i.e. PLN 59.00. In the case in question, we were dealing with the latter instance. After the end of penal proceedings, the publishing house filed a civil suit in which it demanded the payment of PLN 3,500.00.
Court Decision
The court dismissed the petition, first of all on account of defectiveness of the contract concluded with the authors of the textbook and failure to indicate the fields of exploitation in it and, in consequence, ineffective disposal of proprietary copyright. Secondly, the court decided that the operation of a publishing house has to be qualified as copyright trolling which, in the court’s opinion, constitutes abuse of proprietary copyright and, as such, should not be subject to protection.
Summing up the decision above, Attorney Kolczyński stated that: “being exclusively guided by a juristic outlook, one may wonder whether this approach of the court does not entail certain expropriation, or at least a serious limitation of copyright.” Nevertheless, according to the attorney: “in certain cases, such commonsensical approach is necessary, especially when it is evident at first sight that we are dealing with the abuse of one's rights.”
Furthermore, the attorney drew attention to the fact that “proper remuneration is an institution of a normative nature, making references to a license agreement. The petitioner should prove that such agreements were really concluded - sole publication of a price list with exceptionally high prices cannot be treated as evidence that somebody would really be willing to pay so much for using a book.”
