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  • Blogger Fails in Copyright Suit against BT

    On September 5, judge of the Supreme Court Viktar Koushun dismissed the lawsuit of blogger Anton Motolko against the Belarusian TV and Radio Company (BT).

    https://baj.media/sites/default/files/event/preview/matolka_anton-25vo9.jpg

    The judge ruled that the pho­tos of Polar shin­ing tak­en by the blog­ger were not a result of cre­ativ­i­ty, so they were not pro­tect­ed by copy­right. BT rep­re­sen­ta­tives were absent from court when the judge’s deci­sion was announced.

    The pho­to of Polar shin­ing was tak­en in Belarus in 2015 and pub­lished on Anton Motolko’s web­site and blog. The BT broad­cast two men­tioned pho­tos with­out the con­sent of the author. The blog­ger demand­ed apolo­gies from the com­pa­ny for breach of copy­right. Anton Motolko argued that he had been offend­ed by the con­no­ta­tion of the pro­gram in which his pho­tos had been demon­strat­ed: his pho­tos were used for pro­pa­gan­da of state sym­bol­ic. More­over, the fact that his pho­tos had been used by the chan­nel caused him moral suf­fer­ing.

    Ini­tial­ly, the plain­tiff demand­ed roy­al­ties and moral dam­age com­pen­sa­tion, but then said that apolo­gies alone would be enough.

    The court appoint­ed an expert exam­i­na­tion which was car­ried out by Andrei Chupryn­s­ki, head of the Depart­ment of Cin­e­matog­ra­phy of the Belaru­sian Acad­e­my of Art. The expert con­clud­ed that the pho­tos were not cre­ative, and the expert con­clu­sion served as a basis for the judge’s deci­sion.

    The blog­ger now has to pay for the expert exam­i­na­tion 89.40 BYN. The court deci­sion came into legal force and can­not be appealed against.

    Blog­ger Sues BT for Infringe­ment of Copy­right

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