Shopify Inc, Ottawa based e-commerce platform and a group of major educational publishers have settled lawsuit over alleged piracy, according to Tuesday filing in Virginia federal court. Textbook publishers alleged that Shopify enables piracy on its platform. The joint filing by Shopify and Macmillan Learning, McGraw Hill, Cengage Learning, Elsevier and Pearson Education said that the dispute has been resolved with both the sides covering their own legal fees. The joint filing asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice-this means the case cannot be refiled.
Publishers’ attorney and Shopify spokesperson said the case had been “amicably” resolved with settlement terms kept confidential. Shopify’s spokesperson also emphasised that the company “employs robust procedures for taking down IP-infringing content” and has a “strong track record of respecting intellectual property rights.”
Shopify’s Dispute With Publishers
Last year, publishers sued Shopify alleging that the company ignored repeated notices saying that pirated digital versions of their textbooks and other materials are being sold by its users. The lawsuit also said that Shopify has turned a “blind eye” to piracy and this allows for trademark and copyright infringement on a “massive scale.”
Shopify was accused by publishers of allowing merchants to use its software to illegally reproduce and sell textbooks, test banks and other manuals similar or “substantially indistinguishable” from their products.
Publishers argued that Shopify provided merchants with “anonymity, a false veneer of legitimacy, and a safe haven from which to break the law.” The publishers listed over 3,400 copyrights that were “violated. They asked for $2 million for each counterfeited trademark and statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed copyright.
Shopify’s Response
Responding to the lawsuit in January, Shopify said that it “promptly and appropriately” addresses infringement notices. It also accused publishers’ group of attempting to expand the “universe of actors subject to copyright damages.”
In a court filing in March, Shopify said that it had reviewed over 50,000 unique URLs that involved more than 1,750 merchants submitted by the group of publishers between October 2018 to January 2022.
Shopify said that 90 per cent URLs were removed and 95 per cent were taken down within five business days. Shopify informed court that the publishers sued the company because they couldn’t convince Congress to change Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which cushions internet hosts such as Shopify from court claims if they take appropriate action against user infringement.
