AS Ekspress Grupp: a car sales announcement is not a work protected by copyright

According to the notice by the Harju County Court of 9 December 2009, OÜ
Autoportaal has filed with Kentmanni Court House of Harju County Court an
action against Eesti Ajalehed AS for MEEK 9.6. According to the statement of
claim, Eesti Ajalehed AS - a subsidiary of AS Ekspress Grupp - is using without
a legal basis, in portal www.ekspressauto.ee, the works of the plaintiff, which
are published on the website www.auto24.ee. Eesti Ajalehed AS does not admit
the claim and contests it. The information used by Eesti Ajalehed AS originates
from the websites of car sellers who have partnership relations with the
company. In organising portal www.ekspressauto.ee, Eesti Ajalehed AS has
complied with all applicable laws. The company maintains that the protected
works of the plaintiff have not been used; among other things, car sales
announcements or information contained in the announcements cannot be regarded
as protected works, neither is portal www.auto24.ee protected as a database.
“Car sellers enter the information and pictures taken by them in one database
and ask the other portals to take them from that database, as otherwise they
should have to repeat the same data entry procedures. OÜ Autoportaal, however,
considers such information to be in their ownership, which is not correct in
our opinion,” said Gunnar Kobin, Manager of AS Ekspress Grupp, explaining the
situation. “Users, who have added sales announcements to the Internet portal
www.auto24.ee, have not, as far as we know, transferred to OÜ Autoportaal the
exclusive rights to the entered information and posted photos. Those conditions
governing the use of portal www.auto24.ee, which provide otherwise, can be
regarded as unreasonable standard terms and are invalid,” added Kobin. 



Further information:
Gunnar Kobin
Chairman of the Management Board
GSM: +372 5188111
E-mail: gunnar@egrupp.ee