Weaponer: RBC lawsuit will be filed unequivocally

Designer Denis Kharitonov, known as Weaponer LJ , discovered an illustration of his authorship on the pages of the RBC Daily newspaper. Unpleasantly surprised that the publication took place without his knowledge and legitimate right, he decided to file a lawsuit against RBC. We contacted Denis to clarify the situation.

Are you still firm in the intention to file a claim to RBC? Would you agree to resolve the dispute with the world if such a proposal follows?

Yes, the lawsuit will be filed unequivocally, unless something extraordinary happens, like a brick falling on its head or a visit to the ENEA by aliens. Since the meaning of the claim is not to make money, but to publicly prove in court that RBC is a thief and should be held accountable for its actions.
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Moreover, during the discussion on Advertka, another victim was accidentally discovered, from whom the RBC-TV unit “borrowed” music for television. As soon as we solve the primary legal issues, we will try to contact him and file, therefore, no longer one, but two lawsuits.

Holding RBC somehow already showed?

I didn’t show it, and I don’t think it will show at least until the first publications in the press, if any. It seems that you are just the first.
Remember the whole story of the theft of news from Vedomosti. RBC remained silent to the last, and when the claim was found in virtually all news feeds, he also tried to distract the attention of the press by posting on the site a ridiculous offer to buy Vedomosti and declaring a lawsuit against them “creating a PR motive that could affect the course of negotiations for the sale of the newspaper. " The management of Vedomosti had to publicly come up with a refutation, since there were no negotiations. But RBC did not stop there and accused Vedomosti of stealing news, but at the same time tried to thwart the original claim, challenging the legality of copyright agreements between Vedomosti and the authors of the stolen articles.

Such behavior of the company is very revealing, so it is quite possible that such a show expects us.

What amount of compensation would you be satisfied with?

To be honest, on our side no one has seriously thought about this issue yet. Speaking from the position “we want to prove our case”, we can limit ourselves to a symbolic sum of one ruble. Hi Teme Lebedev, yeah.

The hitch is that RBC company will not suffer damage to business reputation, having lost one ruble in court. The press is also not interested in such a claim. Moreover, having won the whole ruble (!) Ruble (!!) at RBC itself (!!!), we will make a sort of smart hand gesture to the entire Runetovsky content market: steal, guys, how much it will fit - even if you catch it, get off easy fright

This is the situation that has now developed on the advertising market. Relatively low fines for violations of the Law on Advertising lead to the fact that the amount of fines is trivially included in the estimate of the advertising campaign, which initially implies violations. There is no reputational damage, and squabble with the FAS is generally regarded as an informational occasion for PR.

Therefore, there is quite a reasonable justification for focusing on the experience of Vedomosti, and then to see what the court will leave the amount claimed. If you're lucky enough for a beer.

What effect can this process have on you?

Probably, here I had to write some clever words about the development of legal relations and the struggle for copyright ... Damn with them, with clever words. I will answer backwards.

Let's be honest with ourselves. In terms of the legalization of the intellectual property market, we are slightly different from China. Or not at all different. Let the one who never used the stolen software and did not watch pirated films be the first to throw a stone at me.

However, this market is slowly but surely growing. And it grows from the bottom, because the only possible way to honest copyright relations is to earn money from them. Software makers are at the top of the food pyramid, because a provincial designer or copywriter can only afford a legal Creative Suite or MS Office when they can earn more than their three hundred bucks a month. And he will be able to earn more only when the magic free method “google and steal”, including with himself, will not compete with his paid services. But the magic method will be popular as long as it is used by the majority of market participants, including both shop colleagues and potential customers.

Therefore, you must first protect the rights to the results of their own labor. Even if all your working software is stolen, you still put your own work, your intellect, your ideas into the product. Understand, guys, that no one will give you money for your work, if he sees that it can be stolen with the same success and will not be paid for with anything. And it is one thing when a picture, text or code is stolen from you as poor as a church mouse and unknown to Vasya Pupkin from Uryupinsk. Damn him, scolded and forgotten. But it’s quite another thing if this is done by a huge, well-known company with multimillion-dollar profits, itself living at the expense of intellectual property, but with a clear definition of “not paying for something that can be simply taken from the Internet.” You understand that she sets an excellent example for everyone else. Hundreds of news journalists can honestly follow the rules of the game and not steal content from each other, but then one RBC newsman comes and vividly demonstrates to everyone: “Why the hell are you working there, stupidly copy content from competitors - anyway, don't care!” Thank God, "Vedomosti" was not to care.

Nobody civilizes our own market if we don’t do it ourselves, if we don’t cease to treat our work without a damn. The magic method will be a thing of the past when every google image lover will think about the consequences ten times before releasing forty-eight thousand copies of a newspaper with a stolen picture.

That's about the effect and I want from the process. At least a thousandth, ten thousandth of this effect. I really hope that the press will not pass it by. And I really hope that we will win.