EU Commission -- Major Supporter Of ACTA -- Gets Dinged 12 Million Euros For Infringing On Copyright
from the all-in-the-enforcement dept
The EU Commission has been a major supporter of ACTA from start to finish, even pushing to expand it beyond what the US had hoped for ACTA to cover. So it's a bit amusing to find out that the EU Commission has lost a copyright infringement lawsuit and now has to pay out €12 million. The case itself is a bit ridiculous. Basically, the Commission had used some translation software from Systran. But then, the EC decided to find a new partner, and Systran went legal:On 4 October 2003 the Commission published a call for tenders for the maintenance and linguistic enhancement of its machine translation system. The services required by the Commission from the successful contractor concerned, inter alia, 'enhancements, adaptations and additions to linguistic routines'; 'specific improvements to analysis, transfer and synthesis programs' and 'system updates', as covered by the call for tenders.Some of the dispute was over what part of the code was actually the Commission's and which was Systran's (which sounds like the Commission needs better lawyers in negotiating software deals). In the end, the EU Commission lost the resulting lawsuit, and now needs to pay up:
Following that call for tenders, Systran... contacted the Commission to inform it that the planned work appeared likely to infringe its intellectual property rights.
Consequently, by granting the right to carry out work which necessarily entailed an alteration of elements of the Systran Unix version of the Systran software which are within the EC-Systran Unix version, without first obtaining the consent of the Systran group, the Commission acted unlawfully by infringing the general principles common to the law of the Member States applicable to copyright and know-how. That wrongful act, which is a sufficiently serious breach of the copyright and know-how held by the Systran group in the Systran Unix version of the Systran software, gives rise to non-contractual liability on the part of the European Union.Why is it always the biggest proponents of greater copyright that get caught infringing on copryights? (Thanks to Igor Mozolevsky for sending this in.)
The General Court rules that liquidated damages and interest amounting to €12,001,000 must be paid to Systran to compensate it for the damage suffered as a result of the Commission's unlawful conduct
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Filed Under: copyright, eu commission, infringement
Companies: systran
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Yes Virginia,
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Re: Yes Virginia,
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Open the champagne, guys!
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Wow. This sounds similar (but not quite) akin to the SAP/TomorrowNow and Oracle lawsuit. And it takes them further away from a Fair Use and also First Sale Doctrine equivalents.
But on the other hand, it's good because the world can sweep all the bottom feeders to one continent.
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Cognitive Dissonance
It not just copyright. Those at the top seem to believe that the law or concept does not apply to them.
Innovation, or whatever, comes from numerous sources. Those who may be the loudest proponents of so-called "intellectual property" may think that they are being original but not realizing that they are "stealing" until an obscure previously unknown person somewhere pulls out some tattered piece of paper asserting infringement and slaps it in their face.
Laws are advertised as solving certain issues, such as teenagers downloading music. So those who pass the law and who may also be downloading music themselves may not make the connection that they are just as guilty as the teenager until exposed.
Power breeds arrogance, those in power -because they may control a government or corporation - may believe that they are immune from any repercussions.
Timothy Geithner's Tax Problems
The clock is ticking on tax cheat Charlie Rangel
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Re: Cognitive Dissonance
Isn't it already effed up as is? It's already boomeranging back on those that wanted it so badly, they want an even smaller box to move around in?
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