EasyJet Boss To Appeal Against Internet Piracy Ruling

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

20 February 2003

The Guardian reported this week that EasyJet founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou is to appeal a ruling which last month found his easyInternetcafe venture guilty of copyright infringement for allowing users to download copyrighted music from the internet.

Mr Haji-Ioannu told the UK newspaper that: 'Consumers were recording music in our internet cafes in order to consume it at a more convenient time. Obviously a judgement on that basis would have thrown the music industry into disarray.'

'I believe it is a question for the House of Lords and not for a summary judgement. We will continue to fight on behalf of the consumer.'

According to reports, EasyInternet's legal team plan to appeal the earlier ruling under Section 70 of the 1988 Copyright design and Patents Act, which states that:

'The making for private and domestic use [of] a recording of a broadcast or cable programme solely for the purpose of enabling its review or listening to at a more convenient time does not infringe any copyright in the broadcast or cable programme or in any work included in it.'

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