Copyright Aid

Hi Andrew, That's a really interesting question. The law is silent on what should happen in a case such as yours*. You bought the chairs legally and continuing to own them after the change in the law does not have any legal consequences, but 'dealing in' (ie selling or advertising them for sale) the...

Hi Ann, I know you are using the term CCJ in the colloquial sense that most people understand, but the actual term is an enforcement order. You already have a sort of county court judgment (the IPEC is a county court for these purposes) and the judge will issue an order which sets out the amount of ...

Hi Peter, You need to differentiate betwen the Particulars of Claim (which is what goes on the Claim Form N1), and the Statement of Case. The latter is the full details of the claim plus the background, any attempts to avoid making a claim etc, plus the remedies you are seeking from the court etc. T...

Hi Ann, That's very good news. Well done for seeing this through despite the aggravation. And hopefully the size of the damages will compensate you for your expenses. I doubt if the judgment will be published; the Small Claims Track cases rarely are and since this was an ex tempore judgment there's ...

Hi Ann, When I read your opening paragraph I thought that maybe he was trying to claim his use of your blog was for educational purposes, so covered by the exception in section 32 . But that doesn't seem to be the case (yet). If he does try to claim this at trial, then the instruction would need to ...

Hi Ann, You will be given ample time to put your case, unless the judge considers it is unnecessary to go into all the detail, for instance if the defendant doesn't turn up or has already admitted liability before the hearing starts. You will be invited to discuss the quantum at a later stage, eithe...

Hi maninthemirror, Thanks for the additional information. That licence does require attribution, but there is no conditionality about commerical use. No need to send me a link to the image as it isn't really relevant. I think we can assume that the photographer has a valid claim to copyright in the ...

Hi maninthemirror, What kind of Creative Commons licence was attached to the image when it appeared on Flickr? And secondly, what kind of use has your team made of the image? For instance is it on a commercial website or advertising a product etc? The latter would probably breach a non-commercial (N...

Hi Ann, ATMOSBOB is absolutely right. Stick your guns and don't be deflected by his posturing. I doubt if the court will want to take any notice of his excuses, and they certainly won't get him off the hook. As you say, if he had wanted to, he could have settled this at a much earlier stage, and sav...

Hi Ann, Sorry to confuse you with my footnote. What I meant was that unconnected members of the public are unlikely to attend! As ATMOSBOB says you can most certainly take someone to assist you, for instance to take notes or to keep track of your paperwork. In the higher courts such a person would b...

Hi Mr Agadem,

I'm very pleased this has gone so well for you.

Hi Ann, I assume that you will be appearing in the Small Claims court which is in the Thomas Moore building. You get to the TMB through the main entrance on the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. It's a bit of a trek through the RCJ to the TMB. Be aware that the Thomas Moore building is served b...

Hi Mr Agadem, Yes you can certainly ask for disclosure of all the uses which have been made of the copies. However without a direction or order from the court, which would normally be given following a case management conference or directions hearing, the defendant isn't forced to comply with your r...

Hi Sally, You should be fine as long as you produce all your own advertising/promotional stuff and any instructions for participants, from scratch and don't use the Manchester company's material as a template. As you say, the basic idea of an event of this sort is not protectable by copyright. There...

Hi Mubuer,

Provided that you ensure that any sample videos with clips from other copyright works does not get published without permission, you should be covered by the exception for private study and research.