You could be forgiven for thinking that it’s only file sharing that copyright owners are concerned about on the internet. With illegitimate download and p2p sites and their users consistently in the firing line from the music industry, other instances of copyright infringement on the web tend not to hit the headlines.
By now, we are used to court orders against ISPs requiring them to disclose the identity of their file sharing users. However, a recent judgement against Google shows that it’s not just file sharers that need to beware.
Unknown people had published an early draft of a publication which was not due for release in the UK until October this year. It was available for free download from a site accessible via an advert on Google. The copyright owners obtained a court order against Google to disclose the identity of the advertisers, who the judge agreed it was reasonable to consider were the same people as those infringing the copyright in the work. Google had previously made clear it would not oppose the application.
A warning to website owners then - copyright is not just relevant to music and video files. The unauthorised use of documents and other text or images can also be the subject of infringement action. And increasingly infringers are unable to rely on the perceived anonymity of the web to shield themselves from action by disgruntled copyright owners.
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