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  • Blogger Sues BT for Infringement of Copyright

    On June 9, the Supreme Court held the preliminary hearing into the case filed by blogger Anton Motolko against the Belarusian TV and Radio Company. The blogger accuses the state-run TV channel that it had used his photos of polar shining without the author’s consent.

    Ini­tial­ly, Anton Motolko want­ed the BT to admit infringe­ment of his pro­pri­etary copy­right and demand­ed a moral dam­age com­pen­sa­tion of 20 mil­lion rubles. In the course of pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing, the blog­ger reduced the finan­cial part in the suit to one ruble. The blog­ger said that it was suf­fi­cient for him if the BT admit­ted the fact of vio­la­tion alone.

    The pho­to of Polar shin­ing was tak­en in Belarus in 2015 and pub­lished in Anton Motolko’s web­site and blog. The BT showed two pho­tos of them with­out the con­sent of the author. Anton Motolko ini­tial­ly demand­ed 2.1 mil­lion as roy­al­ties for each pho­to. Also, he want­ed apolo­gies from the com­pa­ny, how­ev­er, the BT refused to apol­o­gize or to reach an ami­ca­ble agree­ment.

    In the pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing, Anton Motolko said 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, he was asked deri­sive ques­tions about why his pho­tos had appeared on the TV chan­nel, which caused him moral suf­fer­ing.

    The rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the BT Ali­ax­ei Zhylin­s­ki argued that only for the first time the chan­nel failed to name the author of the images, but they did it in the next issues of the pro­gram. He also argued that the TV has the right to use pho­tos from the Inter­net unless the copy­right hold­er for­bids it. In his turn, Anton Motolko pre­sent­ed screen­shots from his web­site that all mate­ri­als were pro­tect­ed by copy­right. The BT rep­re­sen­ta­tives did not view it as a ban to use them for free.

    Ali­ax­ei Zhylin­s­ki argued that, accord­ing to the statute, the TV com­pa­ny is oblig­ed to cov­er impor­tant events in Belarus, includ­ing the state of the envi­ron­ment, to which the polar shin­ing belongs. And, the statute of the BT was approved by the edict of the Pres­i­dent, which stands above the copy­right law, said the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the chan­nel.

    The judge assigned an exam­i­na­tion to find out if the pho­tos were an art­work and so pro­tect­ed by copy­right.

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