Studios threaten legal action against translators

Israel's Anti-Piracy Organization demands independent translators' group that distributes subtitles for popular movies, TV shows via P2P programs cease its action, pay NIS 1 million in damages and issue public apology

Niv Lillian|Published: 09.13.09 , 08:05

Qsubs, one of Israel's largest independent translation groups, may be facing legal action, as last week three of it members received a cease and desist letter from ALIS, Israel's Anti-Piracy Organization.

ALIS, which represents the Motion Picture Association of America in their dealing with Israel as well as various Israeli studios, demanded Qsubs cease their actions, pay them NIS 1 million (about $260,000) in damages and issue a public apology for copyright violations.

Qsubs includes dozens of translators who produce subtitles for popular movies and television shows independently. Their work is available via various P2P programs, which users can download and then attach to any video file.

ALIS' warning letter said the three translators named in it were the administrators of the Qsubs website, which contains hundreds of thousands of subtitles' files created without the studios' permission, thus violating the 2007 Copyrights Act.

Other than distributing subtitles, which is a copyrights infringement in itself, ALIS' Attorney Eran Presenti claims that Qsubs' website also includes visual material, the likes of posters, DVD jackets and video stills taken from movies and TV shows – all constituting copyrights violation.

Qsubs has suspended it activity, "To refrain from hindering the legal proceeding," according to the site's legal counsel.

Attorney Ran Camille, who specializes in intellectual property, explained that according to the law the rights to movies and TV shows are considered "cinematic creations" and as such are held by their producers.

The script is considered a "dramatic creation," and is subject to independent copyrights.

According to Article 16 of the Copyrights Act, only the primary copyrights holder has the right to distribute any part of the finished product, therefore, creating and distributing subtitles is a right reserved for the producers and them alone.

ALIS' action against Qsubs is the first of its kind in Israel: "The studios are sick and tired of suffering damages and doing nothing. We intend to sue and they will have to answer for their actions in court," said Presenti.