Dutch Criminal Court condemns suspect for illegal film distribution

Last week, the criminal chamber of the Court of Appeal in The Hague condemned a suspect for being responsible for the large-scale illegal production of various Bollywood films and having them available for commercial distribution. These were films such as “Bunty aur Babi”, “Veer-Zaara”, “Parineeta”, “Sarkaar” and “Viruddh”. With this illegal trade, the suspect infringed copyrights of Yas Raj Films International Limited and Tip Top Entertainment Limited. Therefore, the Dutch Criminal Court condemns the defendant to community service for the duration of ninety hours and, if not properly carried out, this will be replaced by forty-five days in prison.  

The Dutch police stated in an official report that they caught suspects looking at DVD covers, in a parking lot in the late evening. Police investigators found large stocks of illegal DVDs on the premises of the suspects.

In the Netherlands, a copyright infringement case like this is quite rare, as these kinds of issues are generally dealt with via civil proceedings. However, if copyrights are being violated with criminal intent, this can be qualified as a criminal act under Dutch copyright law

Several witnesses in this case stated that the people involved in this business were fully aware of the illegal nature of the copies, as it were recent film productions. Due to the witnesses’ statements and the objective circumstances as documented in the police reports, the Dutch Court of Appeal deemed it proven that the suspect has acted with criminal intent. Therefore, the Court acknowledged an earlier verdict by a local court and condemned the suspect for copyright infringement.

Read the full decision here (in Dutch)

Source: Gerechtshof 's-Gravenhage, Feb. 3, 2012 (LJN: BV5850)

By: Deniece Teterissa