Guiyang Online News: A cyber cafe in Guiyang provided online playback services of copyrighted films without authorization in its business premises and was sued. Recently, the Intermediate People's Court of Guiyang legally formed a collegiate bench to hear this case, and the plaintiff was awarded 1270 yuan in compensation.
Beijing Net Culture Communication Co., Ltd. claimed that Beijing Poly Bonn Company is the copyright owner of the film "River Mountain Beauty" in mainland China. After being authorized by Poly Bonn Company, the plaintiff Net Culture Company legally obtained the information network dissemination rights of the film in mainland China, with an authorization period of 3 years. In October 2008, the plaintiff Net Culture Company discovered that the defendant Mingren Cyber Cafe, without the plaintiff's authorization, provided paid playback services of the above-mentioned film to the public in its business premises. In view of the unsuccessful negotiations, the plaintiff Net Culture Company filed a lawsuit with the court, requesting the court to order the defendant Mingren Cyber Cafe to immediately cease the infringing behavior, compensate the plaintiff for economic losses of 50,000 yuan, and pay reasonable expenses of 1,500 yuan for preventing the infringement.
The court believed that the defendant Mingren Cyber Cafe provided online playback services of the involved film in its business premises without obtaining the plaintiff's authorization, infringing upon the plaintiff's right of information network dissemination. As for the issue of the defendant Mingren Cyber Cafe being authorized by a third party, since the Mingren Cyber Cafe provided online playback services beyond the contractually agreed term, it should be determined as constituting an infringing act. Considering that the film "River Mountain Beauty" broadcasted by the defendant has been publicly shown in cinemas long ago, the defendant did not upload the film to the Internet for widespread dissemination, and the defendant only provided online on-demand services of the involved film within its cyber cafe, with a relatively small business premises and limited influence of the infringing act, the court decided that the defendant should compensate the plaintiff for economic losses of 1200 yuan. Regarding the plaintiff's rights protection costs, the court only supported a reasonable expense of 70 yuan.
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