Reid v Kennet

Date

15 January 1986

Legislation

s.21(4A) Copyright Act 1956, s.1 Copyright (Amendment) Act 1982

Keywords

Counsel

D.M.S. Houston for the Defendant, S.P. Mehigan for the Prosecutor

Solicitors:

Whisker & Co, for the Defendants, J. J. Goodwin for the Crown

Judge:

Lloyd LJ., Skinner J.

Court:

Divisional Court, Queen’s Bench Division

Reported:

(1986) 83 Cr. App. R. 63, (1986) 150 J.P.N. 127, [1986] Crim L.R. 456

Summary:

Section 21(4A) of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended by s.1 of the 1982 Act) states:

"Any person, who, at a time when copyright exists in a sound recording or cinematographic film, by way of trade has in his possession any article which he knows to be an infringing copy of the sound recording or cinematographic film, as the case may be, shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection….."

The Defendant was an employee of a videotape hire shop. He bought some video cassettes from a person who he knew to be engaged in the trade of buying and selling pirate video tapes. He knew that the cassettes were infringing copies. He was convicted under s.21(4A) with the magistrates construing the words "by way of trade" as meaning "via trade" so that a person was in possession by way of trade if he purchased infringing copies from a trader. The Defendant appealed.

Decision:

The Justices had come to the wrong conclusion as, "by way of trade" referred to the quality of possession rather than the source of the offending material and thus was to be interpreted to mean "in the course of trade".
The prosecution had to prove that a person in possession of infringing copies with full knowledge had them for the purposes of trading with them, either by selling them or hiring them out in the course of business.

Accordingly the appeal was allowed and the conviction was quashed.

NB: The Copyright Act 1956 and Copyright Amendment Act 1982 has been replaced by the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Reviewed 18 August 2010