First copyright case in Russia won against mobile phone operator

Mr. Anton Vartanov, leader of the music group “Magnitnaya Anomaliya“, a client of MGAP, has become the first copyright owner in Russia to win a court case against a mobile phone operator. The operator, “Megafon“, had been selling the group’s songs to its customers as ring back tones without Mr. Vartanov’s permission. MGAP’s lawyers demonstrated to the satisfaction of the court that Megafon had failed to carry out chain-of-title checks to ascertain copyright ownership. The court judged that Megafon had infringed the rights of the copyright owner, Mr. Vartanov, and ordered that the company pay him compensation.