No Date

By Michael Coyle

The silly season produced a story which all the newspapers and media outlets were more than happy to promote. The BBC cried “A British woman who put a game on a file-sharing network has been ordered to pay damages to the game's creator. Topware Interactive has won more than £16,000 following legal action against Isabella Barwinska of London, who shared a copy of Dream Pinball 3D.“

However this is not the full story. What is true is that Davenport Lyons is the law firm behind the proceedings. They have been instructed by Topware. It has relied on information from Logistep and as a result it believes that it has a strong case for commencing proceedings for copyright infringement. The client has understandable concerns. It has to defend its copyright. If there are persistent infringers then surely the infringers must be ceased. However are the defendants infringing the copyright of the rights holder? According to the laws of copyright, copyright in a work is infringed by a person who without the licence of the copyright owner does, or authorises another to do, any of the acts restricted by the copyright.

Has the rights holder had its copyright infringed? We may never know as no cases appear to have been properly aired.

The Defendant, Isabella Barwinska was ordered to have to pay £6.086.58 damages with legal costs in the sum of£10,000. However no defence was filed.

Davenport Lyons has threatened action against "thousands" of suspected file-sharers of its client’s game. P2P is so controversial as files are being shared and those who want a particular game, music track or video get bits of it from everyone else who has it.

However there seems to be some dispute as to whether a trial actually took place. Rather the award was made after Ms Barwinska failed to make an appearance or even enter a defence.

This is what the Lawyers may indeed be hoping for. A trial will ensure legal arguments will be heard and one party will not be railroaded.

My advice if you have received a letter is to fight it. I will defend your case for free.

Michael Coyle is a solicitor advocate who specialises in information technology law and intellectual property law.