Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc.

886 F. Supp. 1120, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6618, 1995 WL 307382
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 13, 1995
Docket95 Civ. 2144
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 886 F. Supp. 1120 (Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc., 886 F. Supp. 1120, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6618, 1995 WL 307382 (S.D.N.Y. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

KOELTL, District Judge:

This is a copyright infringement action in which the plaintiffs seek preliminary injunctive relief enjoining the defendants from unauthorized copying for profit of the publications of the news organization plaintiffs. 1 The news organization plaintiffs are members of the Russian press. They have sued the defendant Russian Kurier, Inc. and others for allegedly participating in the infringement of their rights in news articles and reports by copying the articles without authorization and publishing them in the United States in a newspaper called Kurier.

The present motion asks this Court to enjoin the continued open and blatant copying of copyrighted articles — complete with photographs, headlines, and, in some cases, bylines — from the plaintiff publications by the defendant publication. In their argument seeking the injunction, the plaintiffs rely on recently enacted Russian copyright law and request this Court’s protection because this nation recognizes the copyright protections afforded by other nations under the Berne Convention. The defendants do not deny that they have stolen articles, that they have no permission from anyone to copy them, and that they have lifted them, type face and all, from the plaintiff publications, but the defendants argue that only individual reporters can sue. Therefore, the defendants have asserted the right to continue to electronically cut and paste the articles that appear in the plaintiff publications and pass them off as their own. The defendants have underestimated the protections afforded by the laws of the Russian Federation and the United States for copyrighted materials.

For the reasons stated below, the Court finds that the plaintiffs are entitled to preliminary injunctive relief preventing Russian Kurier, Inc. and its agents from copying copyrighted news articles that originally appear in the newspapers and news agency reports published by the plaintiffs.

The complaint identifies the plaintiffs as follows. Plaintiff Itar-Tass Russian News Agency, formerly known as the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS), is a privately owned news gathering corporation centered in Moscow. Plaintiff Itar-Tass, USA, Inc., a New York corporation, is its wholly owned subsidiary with its principal place of business in New York, New York. Plaintiffs Argumenty i Fakty, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Express Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti (“Moscow News”), and Nezavisimaya Gazeta are private newspapers with their principal places of business in Russia. The newspapers also distribute and sell papers in the United States. Tass has contracts with newspapers and news agencies in the United States which subscribe to its service. Plaintiff Fromer and Associates, Inc., a New York corporation, is the exclusive distributor of Komsomolskaya Pravda and Express Gazeta in the United States. Plaintiff Union of Journalists of Russia is the Russian Federation’s union of accredited print and broadcasting media journalists. 2

*1123 Defendant Russian Kurier, Inc., also known as Kurier, Inc. and Kurier Russian Weekly Newspaper, Inc., is the producer and seller of Kurier. Defendant Oleg Pogrebnoy is its president. Defendant Lineo Printing has printed the newspaper Kurier for Russian Kurier, Inc.

The remaining defendants are in default, because they have failed to appear in this action after having been given repeated notice of the hearings on the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction. Defendant Sverdlov, Inc., also known as Sverdlov Video, is allegedly a New York corporation engaged in the business of selling and distributing Russian language newspapers, including Kurier. Defendant Veniamin Sverdlov is allegedly its president and sole owner.

I.

The Court held a preliminary injunction hearing in this matter on April 18 and 26 and May 11 and 12, 1995. The plaintiffs introduced over sixty alleged examples of newspaper articles that were originally published in the plaintiffs’ publications and that subsequently appeared in Kurier, often in the same typeface and accompanied with the same photographs and headlines. A summary of this evidence prepared by counsel for the plaintiff and reviewed for accuracy by the Court is appended to this Opinion as Appendix A. 3 The Court also received testimony from authors who claimed to have had articles copied without authorization by Kurier. Extensive expert testimony was offered by affidavit and in person regarding the copyright rights of Russian newspapers under Russian law.

On the basis of the evidence presented at the hearing on the application for a preliminary injunction, and after reviewing the extensive documentary evidence and assessing the credibility of the witnesses, the Court finds the following facts. Defendants Russian Kurier, Inc. and Oleg Pogrebnoy produced, sold, and distributed the news articles appearing in the newspaper Kurier, that the defendants have introduced as portions of exhibits 3-67. These articles are either identical or substantially similar to articles previously published in the plaintiffs’ newspapers and reports. See Appendix A. In most instances they share the same typeface, layout, headline, and accompanying photographs. See Appendix A. Russian Kurier, Inc. and Oleg Pogrebnoy copied such articles for publication in Kurier without obtaining authorization from the plaintiffs or the individual authors of the articles. Their intention was to profit from the fruits of the plaintiffs’ labors. They did not compensate the plaintiffs for the use of the articles nor did they disclose the origin of the articles in Kurier, though many of the articles contained the same byline as the originals. Their newspaper, which publishes limited amounts of original material, was thus able to generate sales of approximately $600,000 per year. Aff. in Opp., Ex. B.

II.

To prevail on a motion for a preliminary injunction, the party requesting relief must show:

‘(a) irreparable harm and (b) either (1) likelihood of success on the merits or (2) sufficiently serious questions going to the merits to make them a fair ground for litigation and a balance of hardships tipping decidedly toward the party requesting the preliminary relief.’

Blum v. Sehlegel, 18 F.3d 1005, 1010 (2d Cir.1994) (quoting Jackson Dairy, Inc. v. H.P. Hood & Sons, 596 F.2d 70, 72 (2d Cir.1979)). In the present case, the plaintiffs have shown irreparable harm and a likelihood of success on the merits. In addition, the balance of the hardships tips decidedly in their favor.

The plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed by the continuation of the copying by *1124 Kurier of their copyrighted articles. The number of sales that the plaintiffs would lose to Kurier is not readily calculable. However, there was persuasive evidence that the plaintiff publications have actually lost sales because of efforts by Kurier to get distributors to purchase its publication and not the plaintiffs’.

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Related

Pogrebnoy v. Russian Newspaper Distribution, Inc.
289 F. Supp. 3d 1061 (C.D. California, 2017)
Russian Kurier, Inc. v. Russian American Kurier, Inc.
899 F. Supp. 1204 (S.D. New York, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
886 F. Supp. 1120, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6618, 1995 WL 307382, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/itar-tass-russian-news-agency-v-russian-kurier-inc-nysd-1995.