 In June, a Paris court ordered MySpace to pay almost €60,000 ($88,000) in damages to a French comedian for breach of his copyrights and personality rights. The court considered that MySpace, acting as a publisher, was liable for copyright infringement as unauthorized copies of the comedian’s work had been posted on the web page of a MySpace member.
.jpg "Image") Jean-Yves Lambert (picture right), a famous French comedian and prankster, better known by his stage name Lafesse, literally “the Butt” in French, was reportedly planning to launch a website to make extracts of his comedy shows and DVDs available to internet users. However, when he realized that many of these clips had already been made available on the internet, he lost his sense of humour.
After having won several cases against individuals who had uploaded his work online, Lafesse then aimed for video-sharing websites, launching lawsuits against YouTube, Dailymotion and MySpace.[ 1]
On 22 June 2007, the Paris Tribunal of First Instance ( Tribunal de Grande Instance, often referred to by its initials TGI in French) held, in a summary judgment, that MySpace was acting as a publisher and was thus liable for copyright infringement and violation of Lafesse’s personality rights because its pages contained unauthorized reproductions of his works, portrait and name.[ 2]
You’ve been framed: MySpace is a publisher MySpace was held liable because the court ruled that it was not only a hosting provider but also a publisher of the infringing content. The court observed that, according to its terms of service, MySpace defined itself as “a social networking service that allows its members to create unique personal profiles online in order to find and communicate with old and new friends.”
The court also observed that MySpace “allowed its members to create personal web pages structured by frames displayed in a way specific to the website.” All MySpace pages, the court noted “display on the top an advertisement banner and then a number of frames within the page, each displaying specific information about the member such as its picture, identity and contact details, URL address, interests, personal details, friends and comments from friends etc…”
The court concluded that “by imposing such a specific, frame-based, structure for members to present their personal information and by displaying [revenue generating] ads for each and every visit [made on the pages], [MySpace acted] as a publisher.”
As Jeanne Méhaud, a lawyer at Bird & Bird, points out “this summary judgment is in line with the "Lucky Comics" decision rendered against Tiscali [, an internet service provider,] on 7 June 2006 by the Paris Court of Appeal, [ 3] which ruled that hosting providers of personal web pages who place profitable advertising on these web pages shall be considered as web publishers.”[ 4]
Trigger Happy TGI: €58,000 in damages As a publisher, MySpace was thus liable for the infringements which occurred on the member’s page. Consequently, the summary judgment awarded Lafesse provisional sums of €50,000 in damages for his material loss, €3,000 for his moral damage and €5,000 for the violation of his personality rights.
The TGI of Paris also ordered the removal of the page, with a €1,000 daily penalty payment for failure to comply.
The Butt: a pain in the net As Dr Brad Spitz, a lawyer and law lecturer at the Paris-Sorbonne University, stresses out, this is a summary judgment and a decision on the merits could turn out differently. Nevertheless, with other lawsuits launched and huge damages claims made against YouTube (€8 Million) and Dailymotion (€1.5 Million), the “Butt” is fast becoming, as Spitz puts it, “a pain in the a… for these hosting sites.”[ 5]
SOURCES [ 2] Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, Ordonnance de référé, 22/06/2007 @ Legalis.net. [ 4] Jeanne Méhaud, Myspace considered as a publisher by a French tribunal and found liable for copyright infringement by its members. Bird & Bird, 23/10/2007. [ 5] Brad Spitz, ‘The Buttock’ sues MySpace for copyright infringement. Juriscom.net, 11/07/2007. ILLUSTRATION Crédits photo : DR; taken from Anne Salomon, Jean-Yves Lafesse en guerre contre les pirates. Le Figaro, 15/06/2007.
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