Peta face legal action for infringing intellectual property rights

The American animal rights group Peta is facing legal action in the UK after the film maker Victor Schonfeld has threatened to sue them over an infringement of copyright.

Peter Schonfeld’s solicitors have sent a letter to Peta informing them of his intention to sue them for £470,000. He claims that the animal rights group have used footage from his film ‘The Animals Film’ in various internet videos without his permission or a licence. The £470,000 represents the licence fee that would have been charged.

Both Peta and Mr Schonfeld are active campaigners for animal rights. Both parties use shock tactics to highlight the issues of animal cruelty, factory farming, and scientific research conducted on animals.

However, Mr Schonfeld has publicly criticised Peta for their use of naked models in their campaigns. He believes the use of such tactics by Peta to chase mass media attention is one of the ‘five fatal flaws’ of animal activism, and asks ‘would a human rights organisation stoop so low?’.

Peta have defended their campaigns and say that their celebrity models gladly ‘use their bodies as a surefire way to draw attention to how animals are exploited’.

It is understood that Peta have offered Beyond the Frame, Mr Schonfeld’s London-based film company that holds the copyright to the footage in question, £8,000 but this has been rejected.

This may be due to the fact that Mr Schonfeld would not have agreed to licence the use of the footage to Peta even if they had asked. The legal letter sent to Peta stated that Mr Schonfeld would have been reluctant to grant a licence due to the ‘sexualised efforts to attract publicity’.

Under intellectual property law, it is an infringement of copyright to use copyrighted material without permission or a licence from the copyright holder. Using copyrighted material includes broadcasting, copying and adapting the material.

Peta is currently seeking a declaratory judgement from a court in California that it has not infringed copyright. They have also instructed a law firm in the UK to deal with any legal action brought by Mr Schonfeld.