Petteri Pyyny
10 Apr 2003 2:05
The British Internet cafe chain, easyInternet, wont challenge the High Court ruling that declared in January that its cafes violated copyright laws by allowing customers to use CDR burners.
Company was sued by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the British equivalent of the RIAA in 2002. The case seemed silly, but High Court disagreed -- and probably the defence the easyInternet chose to use wasn't exactly the best possible one. easyInternet didn't point out in their defence that they simply allowed their consumers to use normal part of the computer equipment that can be used (and most would claim that is normally used) for perfectly legal uses as well.
Anyway, in January, easyInternet was ordered to pay damages of £210,000 (appx. $320,000 or €310,000). But since then, easyInternet has, according to the BPI's press release, "provided new financial information that enabled BPI to assess the level of compensation that EasyInternet was liable to pay. EasyInternet also confirmed that it would not run unlicensed CD burning services in the future".
Source: The Register