Impresa Group seeks €631,000 from two defendants over illegal newspaper sharing on Telegram
An Air Force sergeant and an emigrant in Switzerland face trial for sharing newspapers online in a Telegram group with 10,000 members.
Portugal's first trial over illegal online newspaper sharing
An Air Force sergeant from the Portuguese Air Force and an emigrant residing in Switzerland face trial for sharing newspapers online in social media groups with thousands of members, according to reporting by observador.pt based on a story published by the newspaper Público this Sunday.
The Impresa group, owner of the Expresso newspaper, is claiming damages of €631,500 from the two defendants. The figure was calculated on the basis of average annual revenue per subscriber — €63.16 — multiplied by the number of members of the Telegram group, called "Visapress", which had up to 10,000 participants.
The criminal complaint was filed by the Impresa group nearly six years ago. The Public Ministry subsequently managed to identify the two men responsible for managing the groups where the content was distributed illegally.
Defendant residing in Switzerland purchased subscriptions to pirate publications
The second defendant, aged 42, shared newspapers online for nine years. According to the Public Ministry, he acquired subscriptions to various publications — partially funded by contributions from group members — with the stated intention of pirating them. He himself admitted this purpose to the Swiss authorities, who interrogated him at Portugal's request.
The trial was scheduled to begin in October, but it is unlikely to happen: the second defendant has yet to be notified to contest the charge, precisely because he resides in Switzerland.
Military officer also created Instagram and YouTube pages
The Air Force sergeant, aged 37, was a member of the "Visapress" group and additionally created an Instagram page called "jornaisportugueses" to share news, as well as a YouTube channel for the same purpose, according to the Public Ministry.
In July 2020, when Expresso identified how it was being harmed, it altered the system for distributing the PDF edition to subscribers, so as to make unauthorised sharing more difficult.
Offences punishable by up to three years' imprisonment
This will be the first case of illegal online newspaper sharing to reach trial in Portugal. The defendants are answering charges of usurpation and taking advantage of usurped work, provided for in the Copyright Code, which can result in prison sentences of up to three years and payment of a fine.
In 2021, the Intellectual Property Court ordered the blocking of 17 Telegram channels for copyright infringement. The following year, Telegram itself closed down 11 channels with similar infractions. In many of these groups, administrators charged monthly fees that could reach ten euros for members to access dozens of publications.
Source: Google News PT