Composer and singer Mati Caspi filed a lawsuit against a restaurant in Tel Aviv, in the amount of NIS 200,000 after they used his song 'Siba Tova' in a video published on Facebook to promote their restaurant.
The owners of the restaurant offered Kaspi a voucher for NIS 3,000 for use in the restaurant before filing the lawsuit.
No defense has been filed yet.
According to the recently filed lawsuit, in 1981, as part of the second album of the singer Eric Sinai, the Caspi plaintiff created the melody for the song "Siba Tova".
The defendants, the restaurant 209 Maoz Aviv, as part of an advertising campaign and rebranding of the restaurant, created a video lasting 01:22 minutes, in which they allegedly made unauthorized and illegal use of the song "Siba Tova" composed by him and for which the copyright in the melody of this work belongs to him.
As part of the video, the restaurant's new branding was launched.
may lead the restaurant to bankruptcy
Caspi, through his attorney, sent the defendants a warning letter prior to taking legal proceedings for copyright infringement, in which the defendants were required to cease their infringing activities and to compensate the plaintiff for settlement purposes only in the amount of NIS 140,000.
The defendants made it clear to Caspi's attorney in a phone call and even in writing that he would work to exercise his proprietary right in the work, this would lead them to bankruptcy.
The defendants also claimed that the use they made of the song was a "zero-sixty" use and that no damage was caused to the funds and they claimed that they were confident in their full belief that the annual fee they transfer to the music federation in order to allow the use of the video.
Following this, the defendants were asked to make a proper and respectful offer for the unlawful use of the plaintiff's property, they offered Kaspi, according to him, a humiliating "barter" offer, to say the least - a cash voucher for 3,000 shekels that he can redeem (or anyone on his behalf) at the restaurant whenever he wants .
"The video was uploaded to our Facebook page once six weeks ago, on our page with a total of 479 followers. The video was seen by 80 people (!) and out of the approximately 4-minute song, the aforementioned video is only one minute long," the restaurant wrote in response For Mati Kaspi.
"Using works for advertising purposes is the most sensitive area for creators and the most expensive from the point of view of licensees. A license to use such a well-known work for the purpose of advertising is a license whose cost can reach hundreds of thousands of shekels depending on the scope of use. Moreover, creators do not usually agree that their works will be used for the purpose of promoting products that "They are not identified with them or they document them or they think they may damage the quality of their work. The defendants took the plaintiff's works without permission for the purpose of promoting a restaurant, which it is highly doubtful that the plaintiff would even agree to grant a license (in return) for use," the lawsuit states.
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