A HIGH Court judge has said it “stretches belief” to accept that a range of equipment seized from a Dublin man’s home, including equipment capable of burning hundreds of CDs and DVDs per hour, was being used to produce wedding and 21st party DVDs.
Stephen Trimble had failed to explain the inclusion of some 550 counterfeit CDs among the material, Mr Justice Peter Kelly said.
The material includes a computer, CD and DVD burner machines, printers, hundreds of CDs and DVDs, hundreds of empty CD and DVD cases and a machine described as a DVD “protection defeating” device capable of adapting North American market DVDs for the European market.
The judge yesterday granted an injunction, to apply pending full legal proceedings, restraining Mr Trimble infringing copyright in sound and DVD recordings owned by, or exclusively licensed to, four major record companies.
The judge also directed the equipment in question, found by a Circuit Court judge to have been unlawfully seized by gardaí from Mr Trimble’s home at Suncroft Drive, Tallaght, Dublin, should be given by gardaí to solicitors for the record companies pending the determination of the companies’ action against Mr Trimble.
Mr Trimble has denied operating a CD and DVD burning factory and claims he is entitled to return of the equipment, which has been in the possession of gardaí since October 2005 when they raided his home for fireworks.
The case was before Mr Justice Kelly yesterday via applications by the record companies for injunctions restraining infringement of copyright and requiring handover of the equipment to their solicitors pending the full legal action.
Brian O’Moore SC, for the record companies, said not even the busiest wedding photographer would need the equipment found in Mr Trimble’s home. Counsel for Mr Trimble argued the record companies were not entitled to rely in any way on the materials as they were unlawfully seized.
In his decision, Mr Justice Kelly stressed the case was at injunction stage only and the court was not making final determinations on the issues.
Both sides had established serious issues to be tried in relation to alleged breach of copyright and whether there was any right to rely on evidence grounded on material unlawfully seized.
The judge granted the injunctions and awarded costs of the application against Mr Trimble.
