In a recent default judgment granted to Twentieth Century Fox, a Canadian Federal Court recently issued an injunction and a damage award in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. v. Hernandez et al (T-1618-13) for copyright infringement based on copying and rebroadcasting The Simpsons and Family Guy programs through the defendant's websites "Watch The Simpsons Online" and "Watch Family Guy Online".
As the court noted: "Statutory damages, elected by Twentieth Century Fox in this case, would be insufficient to achieve the goal of punishment and deterrence of the offense of copyright infringement in this case. Hernandez's repeated, unauthorized, blatant, high-handed and intentional misconduct, and his callous disregard for the Plaintiff's copyright rights, is deserving of the penalty of punitive damages."
The court went on to issue a damage award of $10 million in statutory damages under 38.1 of the Copyright Act, as wel as $500,000 in punitive damages, costs of $78,000, plus interest
Hat tip to Alan Macek at Dimock Stratton for a link to the decision.
Calgary - 07:00 MST
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