Daphnis c. Bello, 2022 QCCS 4790
2022-12-14
Read full decision. Summary prepared by Alan Macek:
The plaintiff, Ms. Nephar Daphnis, claims that a book written by Ms. Banniyah Bello, of Haitian nationality, and published in the United States by Thorobred Books LLC, a corporation of Maryland, constitutes an infringement of her copyright on an earlier work created in Quebec. ... In short, from the moment a work or product that infringes a Canadian copyright is sold or distributed in Canada, a Canadian court validly seized of the dispute can apply the ODA without giving it extraterritorial scope because there is then has a “real and significant connection” with Canada, even if the acts of plagiarism or copying occurred abroad. ... Even though Ms. Daphnis did not write Book A as an employee of the troupe, the fact remains that she clearly produced it as a member of the troupe, within the framework of the activities of the latter. and in order to make the whole troupe benefit from her work. I therefore conclude that the copyright invoked by the plaintiff does not belong to her and that it belongs rather to the Sole Dance Troupe. ... However, there is nothing to indicate that Mr. Derenoncourt had access at any time and in any way whatsoever to the document drafted by Ms. Daphnis during the preparation of Book B. This would obviously be fatal to the action of the plaintiff, even if she had held copyright in Book A. (based on a translation)