The Appellate Court in Warsaw in its judgment of 12 December 1995 case file I ACr 590/95, published in OSA 1997, No 3, item 16, at page 32, held that benefits are generally a part of the net profit achieved as a result of copyright infringement. Looking at this issue from the comparative perspective, it is worth mentioning, that the No Electronic Theft Act (Pub. L. No. 105-147, 111 Stat. 2678 (Dec. 16, 1997)) introduced changes into 17 U.S.C § 101. Definitions.

The term “financial gain” includes receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works.

According to the Polish Court, the benefits are also the savings on expenses for copyright fees, if the copyright infringement was based on the use of work without a proper remuneration. Interesting approaches in two different jurisdictions. I just need to remind you that the Republic of Poland is not a common law country.

See also “Polish regulations on copyright” and “Polish case law on copyright“.

Categories: Art. 75 ARNR | copyright infringement | copyright law | Polish Act on Authors Rights and Neighbouring Rights | Polish Appeallate Court | Polish courts | Polish law | US law.