Big moves from the Federal Court in copyright law! For the first time, in Nintendo of America Inc. v King et al., 2017 FC 246, the Federal Court imposed $11,760,000 in statutory damages for violation of the Copyright Act, ss 27(2) and 41.1(1), plus $1,000,000 in punitive damages.
Go Cyber was found liable for secondary copyright infringement by effectively authorizing copying of Nintendo property, without Nintendo’s consent, through its downloadable header data. Furthermore, Go Cyber was found to have circumvented Nintendo’s TPMs (technological protection measures). These are any tech measure for controlling access to a work.
To refresh – the Copyright Act protects original works, including computer programs.
This case is good news for content creators because it shows that the courts will seriously enforce the 2012 amendments to the Copyright Act, prohibiting the circumvention of TPMs. #copyrightreform In other words, the courts take piracy seriously. The upshot of the case is, no going around TPMs and no enabling others to do so. #copyright #contentcreators To read the case, go to http://canliiconnects.org/en/cases/2017fc246