In 2012, TONO filed a lawsuit against RiksTV, alleging that RiksTV makes musical works available to the public that require an agreement with the copyright holders. On June 14, the verdict was in TONO's favor.
/ 22/06/2016 / codexIn 2012, TONO filed a lawsuit against RiksTV, alleging that RiksTV makes musical works available to the public that require an agreement with the copyright holders. On June 14, the verdict was in TONO's favor.
The case concerns a claim for compensation for failure to clear copyrighted music rights, cf. the Copyright Act §2. RiksTV distributes a number of channels, all of which contain copyrighted material. For 24 of the channels, there has been a dispute as to whether composers and lyricists have given the necessary consent to the use of musical works.
TONO's case was put on hold pending the outcome of the legal proceedings between Norwaco and Get, which concerned whether the distributor Get was retransmitting under Section 34 of the Copyright Act. This case has been finally decided in the Supreme Court, a case Norwaco lost.
The main hearing in the case between TONO and RiksTV was conducted over five court days from 23 to 27 May 2016. Judgment was handed down on 14 June. In the judgment, the court fully upholds TONO in all its claims. RiksTV has been ordered to pay all of TONO's legal costs of NOK 4,1 million. The court assumes that what RiksTV is doing is an independent making available and public performance that must be cleared with the authors according to Section 2 of the Copyright Act.
If the verdict is upheld, TONO will be entitled to compensation from RiksTV for RiksTV's broadcasts of some twenty channels broadcast from abroad. For many of the channels, the claim will go back to 2009.