BPI rejects CD Wow's human error defence

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 27 Feb 2007 at 11:43

The BPI has rejected CD Wow's claim that the 'human error' that led it to sell 33 CD titles in breach of copyright is an 'unfortunate mistake'.

The UK music industry trade organisation's general counsel Roz Groome told the High Court that these errors are more than coincidence.

'We believe that the level of human errors at CD Wow can lead to no other conclusion than that CD Wow has operated in contempt of court and has undertaken very significant breaches of copyright,' Groome said.

'The BPI's case is that the total breaches - when measured against all test purchases that have been undertaken - indicate a very significant breach of copyright and breaches of the undertakings they gave to the UK court.'

A spokesman for CD Wow later denied the allegations, claiming that the BPI had exaggerated the number of infringing CDs that had been sold.

'CD Wow believe that the BPI has exaggerated the ratios of breaches against test purchases by repeat buying certain products,' he said. 'When they came across a particular album that breached the agreement they then went ahead and ordered a batch more of the same album, of the 33 incidents cited in proceedings four albums were purchased more than once including a Robbie Williams album that was bought five times.'

The BPI is suing the online retailer, alleging that it is in contempt of court for violating a previous order not to import CDs from south east Asia without the permission of the relevant record company.

CD Wow claims that in only a handful of cases CDs has mistakenly been sold in the UK and insists that all CDs are legitimately acquired direct from the record companies.