Flea World, Inc., one of the largest flea market hosts in the country, was found liable for both contributory and vicarious copyright infringement last month by a New Jersey district court. The case, a rehash of the old flea market cases of the 90s, was brought by Arista Records, Sony Music, and a number of other recording industry organizations. The plaintiffs sued Flea World for allowing vendors to sell pirated copies of music CDs and videos, even though it knew, or should have known, that these vendors were marketing illegal copies of plaintiffs’ products.

Both plaintiffs and defendants used as evidence the rules created by the defendant for its vendors, pointing to the fact that it a) prohibited counterfeit sales, b) regularly policed and reviewed merchandise, and c) often removed vendors from the flea market for violating those rules, at least in some areas. The court found that the evidence put forth at trial showed that defendants exercised substantial control over each of the vendors in question and also provided the vendors with amenities such as free parking, advertising, tables, maintenance, and security. Given that the defendants maintained a well-controlled environment, should have known that the piracy was taking place (and did, at least selectively), and received a substantial financial benefit from these pirated materials, liability was found.

In addition to its copyright troubles, Flea World may also have some trademark challenges ahead, since a number of organizations claim trademark rights in the term FLEAWORLD. Save a little for your next, battle guys.

This entry was posted by Tsan Abrahamson on Monday, April 10th, 2006 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Copyrights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.