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Credit card processors protected in copyright suit

3 July 2007 18:18 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 7 comments

A U.S. appeals court panel has ruled that companies processing credit card payments for web sites that offer pirated content are not liable for infringement. The decision confirms a lower court decision against Perfect 10 Inc. in its dispute with Visa International Service Association, MasterCard International Inc. and affiliated banks. Perfect 10 Inc. operates a web site featuring nude pictures of models.

Norm Zada, president of Perfect 10, said that the ruling will encourage theft of intellectual property and gives thieves a means to profit from piracy. "On the Internet, it is easy to steal and almost impossible to defend against that," Zada told Reuters. "How much business do I lose? There are least 70 sites I subscribe to that sell every picture that I own."

"The plaintiffs want to create an economic blockade of anybody accused of infringement," Andrew Bridges, the lawyer who defended MasterCard said. Writing for the majority, Judge Milan Smith Jr. said credit card processors do not assist or enable Internet users to find infringing content. "Here, the infringement rests on the reproduction, alteration, display and distribution of Perfect 10's images over the Internet," Smith wrote.

Perfect 10 Inc. has also faced Google Inc. in court, accusing the search giant of infringement for linking Internet users to sites that republish its images without authorization.

Source:
Yahoo (Reuters)

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venomX05 (Senior Member) 4 July 2007 7:18
Man, get a grip...you should know that if you put ANYTHING on the net, it isn't going to be solely yours...more like the worlds. [ + quote]
PeaInAPod (AfterDawn Addict) 4 July 2007 11:19
Originally posted by venomX05: Man, get a grip...you should know that if you put ANYTHING on the net, it isn't going to be solely yours...more like the worlds. Not true. For example, you buy a CD. You own the CD and you have the right to rip it to your computer but you don't have the right to copy it and spread it all over the web without the copyright holders consent. Same situation here, when someone buys one of perfect10's photographs they are given a license to use it. They do not have and are not given a license to distrubute and use the content as they please. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 4 July 2007 11:31
Quote: Originally posted by venomX05: Man, get a grip...you should know that if you put ANYTHING on the net, it isn't going to be solely yours...more like the worlds. Not true. For example, you buy a CD. You own the CD and you have the right to rip it to your computer but you don't have the right to copy it and spread it all over the web without the copyright holders consent. Same situation here, when someone buys one of perfect10's photographs they are given a license to use it. They do not have and are not given a license to distrubute and use the content as they please. ------------------------------- ================ the trouble is you get a site like allofMP3 that was legal (in Russia) and the media mafia was not happy with the deal that they had with it they bullied the Ccard companies and allofMP3.com died. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 5 July 2007 1:13
See nothing good come out of porn. Shameful :) [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 5 July 2007 2:05
SO thats where pornograph comes from..it was rather pornographic they way the industry protected arits back then :P [ + quote]
pmshah (Newbie) 9 July 2007 1:21
If one sold copyright infringing - pirated in other words - material for hard US$ currency - I guess you would have to sue US Treasury. [ + quote]
daisygrl (Newbie) 19 July 2007 8:46
The credit card processor companies deserve to be protected as they didn't do anything wrong but provide a service for a website. You can't sue them for providing a service for a website to accept payments. [ + quote]