Beer company Heineken has offered an unusual defence against copyright infringement on the grounds that its use of copyright photographs on a web site was only temporary.

The company had set up a web site (HeinekenMusic.ie) to promote the Oxegen music festival in Ireland. The site aggregated content from a number of social networking sites such as Yahoo, YouTube, Flickr, LastFM, Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook. The T&C stated that if anyone felt their rights had been infringed they should take up the matter with the third party, ie Flickr, YouTube etc.

The Australian union for journalists and photographers, Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), complained and Heineken offer to pay 15 Euros per picture, claiming that

...any use of the images was, at best (if it could be said to be use at all, given they were immediately removed), use on a temporary basis and would not form the basis of any copyright claim in this jurisdiction.

While a notice and takedown policy is useful in a defence against infringement it is unusual to assert that temporary use is not an infringement. The sum offered is very low but Heineken claim that it is offered as compensation for 'having to write to us" and that 'no breach of copyright has occurred".

Source: Sunday Business Post 16 Nov 08

More discussion on http://www.copyrightaction.com/forum/heinekenmusic-ie-blames-your-content-host-for-letting-them-breach-your-copyright