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Author Topic: Recent Masterfile Federal Case Vindicates Our Position! A MUST READ  (Read 13053 times)

SoylentGreen

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Re: Recent Masterfile Federal Case Vindicates Our Position! A MUST READ
« Reply #15 on: July 22, 2010, 02:08:41 PM »
You’re very welcome Matthew; I sincerely hope that I have helped others much as you and Oscar have.

I’m not a lawyer, and I have not “tested” the following theories, however consider the following a “thought experiment”.  I have been speculating whether the likes of Masterfile and Getty are actually willing to take their complaints to court in Canada.  While they have sometimes registered their complaints with the court for around 50 dollars in recent times, there has always been a discontinuance filed and nobody went to court.  As mentioned above, Masterfile hasn’t actually gone to court over copyright issues since 2000/2001 – almost an entire decade.  Getty has never actually gone to court in Canada.

What I’m saying is that Masterfile and Getty have never gone to court in Canada and won anything. Surely, some of the ‘accused’ have agreed to an out-of-court settlement that both parties agreed to. However, I do wonder if any of the accused simply said something to the effect of, “ok, see you in court”. Did Masterfile or Getty back off anyway? *Everybody* paid them off without going to court?  It’s hard to believe.

I have taken note that Masterfile hasn’t really registered much in Canada as ‘copyrighted’.  Checking at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, “Copyrights Database”, I can only find three documents copyrighted by Masterfile at this time.  That is, three “Best of Masterfile” image catalogs; Volumes 19, 20 and 21.  Search for “Masterfile” here:

http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/cpyrghts/dsplySrch.do?lang=eng

What does this mean?  Firstly, Masterfile hasn’t copyrighted much of its content in Canada.  Chances are, if one is told that they’ve infringed on a Masterfile copyright, it may not be copyrighted in Canada at all.  Secondly, since Masterfile has copyrighted several images in only three bulk catalogs (and not individually), this may reduce the number of alleged infringements made by the accused. For example, three copyrighted images that are infringed upon, but copyrighted in bulk in one place are often taken as one copyright infringement. While Masterfile has copyrighted more of its content in the USA, I’m not sure how much it would mean to a Canadian court that images were copyrighted in some other country, especially when it appears that the accuser seems to have been lazy in their home country.  If they want as little as $2500 or even $50,000 from you, they have to *prove* their case; it must be quite compelling.  I believe that there is also a big issue for Masterfile (and maybe others) in that, while they have copyrighted three of their catalogs, there is no info given as to whom the author is for each image that the catalogs contain.  That is to say, while the books are copyrighted, there's not enough copyright information *registered* for each individual image.  Oscar recently posted an article showing that there's a similar issue in the USA as well; while many images have been "copyrighted", the original author was never listed in many cases.

I’d like to wrap this up by saying that a Getty court loss or worse yet, another Masterfile loss in Canada would be devastating to both of them and many other similar companies. All of their future efforts to extort money from people here in Canada would be worthless. Anyone who performs the most simple of research would know that these companies can’t do anything to collect money. Even their “Copyright Enforcement Teams” would be out on the street, out of a job.  I’m not so sure if they can risk it at this time.

S.

Oscar Michelen

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Re: Recent Masterfile Federal Case Vindicates Our Position! A MUST READ
« Reply #16 on: July 27, 2010, 09:25:22 AM »
Another great post Soylent thanks

 

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