Goldi Productions Ltd. et al v Adam Bunch, 15-5800
2018-08-01
Read full decision. Summary prepared by Alan Macek:
In this Ontario Small Claims matter, the plaintiff, a documentary filmmaker and creator of an "Internet Museum" entitled the "Canadian Anglo Boer War Museum", sought remedies for copyright infringement from the author of a blog post, entitled "J. Cooper Mason and the Great Boer War". The blog post had included some photos and information from the plaintiff's Internet museum site. The Court found there was no copyright in facts. For the photographs, the Court found that the plaintiff's acts of locating photos, reproducing and enhancing them for the Internet museum was "purely mechanical" so the plaintiff had no copyright in the photos. The Court also found that the defence of fair dealing was made out as the blog post's purpose was to promote history. The claim of the plaintiff was therefore dismissed. (Thanks to John Simpson for a copy of the decision)