Legal Updates

A person aware of a counterfeit but turns a blind eye risks committing copyright infringement himself

October 2, 2019
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A book trader purchase and sold books, later discovered to be counterfeit.
The Court held that the books trader infringed the publisher's copyrights and therefore is to pay compensation of ILS 320,000. Copyright infringement can occur indirectly when the infringing party should have known that it was an infringing copy. In this case, the book trader was unable to produce an invoice proving purchase of an original copy or even an order which include a list of the purchased books. Furthermore, the book trader was involved in the books industry for many years and not only was well aware of the counterfeit possibility in this business, but only a few months earlier signed a settlement in another legal procedure after being found in possession other infringing copies of the same company. Therefore, the book trader knew or should have known that the books may be counterfeit copies.