Ontario Superior Court of Justice Dismisses Copyright Infringement Case Against Toronto Radio Station

On October 10, 2017, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Court) issued its decision in John v Richards (2017 ONSC 6307) summarily dismissing an action for copyright infringement against the defendants.

The plaintiff was the subject of a Toronto Star article which reported on his conviction for threatening to cause bodily harm against his former music promoter. The threats were contained in the lyrics of the plaintiff’s rap song “Got Yourself a Gun”. The defendant, a radio talk show host at CFRB in Toronto, interviewed the plaintiff about these charges and their impact on freedom of speech and the limits of artistic license.

During the interview, the defendant played a couple of clips from the plaintiff’s song “The Dream Catcher” to give a flavour of the plaintiff’s music. The plaintiff alleged that this use amounted to copyright infringement. Specifically, he alleged that the defendant illegally downloaded the song from YouTube and that the radio station did not report the use of the song to SOCAN for royalty payment to the plaintiff.

The Court dismissed the case summarily finding that there was no genuine issue requiring trial. It found that the plaintiff failed to provide any admissible evidence in support of his claims. Furthermore, Section 68.2(2) of the Copyright Act bars any proceeding for the infringement of an artist’s public performance right against anyone who has paid a collective society royalties as specified in an approved tariff. CFRB, as a licensee with SOCAN and having paid its royalties, had a complete defense to the copyright infringement allegations.

Summary By: Jae Morris