Polish Publishers Win MMO licensing rights after long struggle

After a legal fight that ran for 10 years the Polish publishers have won a ruling that MMOs must pay for content. The Court of Appeal ruled  that Press-Service Monitoring Mediów must sign a contract with the publisher of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna in order to use their content. Translated ruling here.

The Court ordered Press-Service to desist from infringement of author's economic rights with respect to copying, making publications and press articles and extracts available on the internet, and to immediately remove the infringing copies from analogue and digital collections. They were ordered to notify customers of the unlawful nature of the acts and to place a statement on the website about the unlawful nature of the activity. Press-Service must publish the information in the 'DGP' yellow pages and on the 'Rzeczpospolita' portal about the unlawful character of their behaviour. Press-Service must also pay the costs of the court proceedings.

This comprehensive ruling followed an extended campaign by publishers, which included forcing changes to the copyright law, which had been badly translated from an EU directive.

PDLN sends congratulations to Repropol and the publishers for this success and their exemplary determination in forcing a common sense result through the layers of MMO denial and bureaucratic obstacles.  Poland joins Italy and Portugal in gaining authoritative legal support for MMO licensing.