Sony slaps Beyoncé uploader with damages
Sony Music is demanding 1.5 million kronor ($200,000) in damages from a Swedish man who fileshared Beyoncé's as yet to be released album in a case that has legal experts scratching their heads.
The 47-year-old man in Gothenburg has been prosecuted and now faces a damage claim from the record company.
Marianne Levin, intellectual property law professor at Stockholm University, told the TT news agency that it is tricky to put an exact price-tag on the harm that the suspect would have caused the artist and her record company.
"I don't think they've showed in a satisfying way how to quantify the damage in these types of cases," she said.
"And I question if it will ever be possible to do so."
The man, who told police he had worked within the music industry, was charged in October 2012 for copyright infringement.
He shared the US artist's new album, entitled 4, on The Pirate Bay site ahead of its planned release date.
"Music sharing cases have been prosecuted in Sweden before, but authorities see this as an opportunity to test how far punishments can be pushed in a pre-release case," the website TorrentFreak commented on the case.
TT/The Local/at
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The 47-year-old man in Gothenburg has been prosecuted and now faces a damage claim from the record company.
Marianne Levin, intellectual property law professor at Stockholm University, told the TT news agency that it is tricky to put an exact price-tag on the harm that the suspect would have caused the artist and her record company.
"I don't think they've showed in a satisfying way how to quantify the damage in these types of cases," she said.
"And I question if it will ever be possible to do so."
The man, who told police he had worked within the music industry, was charged in October 2012 for copyright infringement.
He shared the US artist's new album, entitled 4, on The Pirate Bay site ahead of its planned release date.
"Music sharing cases have been prosecuted in Sweden before, but authorities see this as an opportunity to test how far punishments can be pushed in a pre-release case," the website TorrentFreak commented on the case.
TT/The Local/at
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