This catering establishments They are becoming more and more active on social media. Being aware of the exclusive showcase that Facebook or Instagram offers to promote your business is very common in the case of organizers, for example. banquetsPublishing photographs of elaborately decorated tables, appetizing appetizers and main courses, dessert corners or, depending on the type of celebration, glowing balloons or children’s motifs in the halls. But these images may turn against you. This is what happened to a restaurant condemned by the USA. Pontevedra Commercial Court 3, headquartered in VigoTo pay 5,769 euros to the General Association of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) Copyright for about thirty musical entertainment events carried out in its facilities for more than three years. One of the most important evidence taken into consideration by the magistrate and contributed to the trial by the plaintiff is the publications of the institution on social networks. wedding, baptisms anyone first congregations What was done at that time.
This decision on violation Appealable intellectual property rights are one of the rights granted by the Vigo court in recent months in relation to such cases that have skyrocketed after the COVID pause. In this particular case, the business and SGAE had a contract in effect since 2007, but the business took the restaurant to court for: From May 2016 to December 2019 The venue he referred to in his case stopped transmitting “activities performed with musical entertainment”. After the procedure was legalized, the restaurant partially accepted the payment of 1,680 euros, specifically recognizing the celebration of ten weddings using the musical repertoire during the disputed period. However, 25 other incidents that increased debt to those with more than 5,700 euros claimed, denied the other alleged incidents.
Intellectual property
33 procedures between January and April
After the hiatus in 2020 and 2021, these discussions are growing again in Vigo. There were 67 in 2022 and 33 so far this year.
Cases that often result in convictions
With a few exceptions, cases brought by the SGAE always result in convictions.
The judge sees that you are accredited musical celebration of all feasts claiming SGAE. Not only because of the statements of the employees of the business and the visit records submitted, but also evidence collected online. “As stated in the case and the attached document, the activities carried out by the defendants in their homes are announced on the internet, on the web, on Facebook and on Instagram. There are references to this issue in the court decision, on the forums, and on the Internet, without generic objection, without evidence to the contrary, which serve to undermine the evidentiary value of this evidence presented by the plaintiff. The “internet” information summarizing the judge confirms the “credibility” of the statements of the plaintiff company personnel. What was contributed to the procedure, as well as evidence “the dynamic of a certain continuity of party celebrations” In the restaurant that reprimands when it should be viewed accounting, bills and the model of financial operations conducted with third parties at the time the litigation focused “preferred the contribution of partial documents and a biased statement of action.”
televisions in a hotel
other sentences The lawsuits derived from more SGAE lawsuits brought by this court in recent months are equally damning. In one of them, a man in the city center is convicted. hotel with TVs installed in nearly 60 rooms. The organization claimed that these televisions only allowed the reproduction of images. informative news programsand that it does not belong to intellectual property works, and in any event they are not acts of “public communication”. The judge does not share this criterion because, according to current case-law, this “unaccountable” obligation to the Hotel to pay for the royalty concept, even if guests do not connect audio or television while in the room, or are not in the room for most of the day.
Business continues its forensic attack after COVID break: two lawsuits per week
In 2019, the only specialized commercial court in Vigo added about 80 cases formalized by SGAE. free reproduction of music protected against pubs, restaurants, pubs, hotels or party commissions. Over the next two years, these cases were dropped. After the outbreak of COVID, almost no new lawsuits were received by this company or other intellectual property rights companies: Only four procedures entered in 2020 and only three procedures received in 2021. However this truce has already ended. In 2022, 67 requests were registered, and between January and April of this year already 33, or an average of two requests per week.
In no case has the offensive in times of coronavirus stopped completely, as SGAE in the midst of a health crisis has continued to file lawsuits to try to collect through it. sentence execution In addition to the money from the cases that he has already won and which have a final judgment acts of reconciliation or pre-processing to obtain information for future litigation. What they cut off was the submission of new cases, but that is now history, as statistics show how active the writers’ association’s judicial activity has once again been. In the vast majority of cases, the court agrees. and condemns organizations to pay for the canon. However, in recent years, there have been three venues from Vigo that have taken the pulse of SGAE: A small cafe in Zamora street, canido bar And another Camposancos establishment.