U.S. advertising network acquitted of copyright infringement

The publishers Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons, lost the U.S. court case against advertising network Chitika. The publishers claimed the advertising company Chitika was liable for direct copyright infringement of the publisher’s e-books. The ad network served ads to a site called Pharmatext.org, offering links to unauthorized copies of e-books. However, the publishers did not produce evidence of direct infringement, or evidence that the network knowingly contributed to copyright infringement based on copyright law. Therefore, the ad network has been found not guilty of copyright infringement.

The outcome of this court case does not really come as a surprise, as the Phamartext website does not offer e-books directly (but through links) without permission of the copyright holders. Therefore, this makes it even more difficult for the publishers to claim the ad network is liable for direct copyright infringement.

A claim based on tort for facilitating copyright infringements would have seem more logical, since neither Pharmatext nor Chitika directly publish or reproduce copyright protected e-books without granted permission of the copyright holders.

In case you have found the court ruling, please post the link in the comments section.

Reference: Torrentfreak