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Queen Elizabeth and the Aga Khan share a moment at a Buckingham Palace dinner in 2008 marking his Dominic Lipinski/APGolden Jubilee as leader of the world's Ismaili Muslims. |
The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, is suing a Toronto lawyer and Montreal businessman for copyright infringement. The France-based philanthropist is seeking punitive and exemplary damages and an injunction against two of his own lay followers.
The 10-page statement of claim, filed last week in federal court, alleges the two men and other unnamed parties infringed on his copyright by selling “literary works and readings” he wrote. The document alleges the defendants engaged in commercial ventures using unauthorized reproduction of material.
The material in question consists of a collection of written messages and speeches delivered by the Aga Khan between 1957 and 2009. “The infringing materials were produced, published, distributed or sold by the defendants,” the statement of claim says. “The plaintiff … has not authorized the production, publication, distribution or sale of the infringing materials in Canada or anywhere in the world.”
Ismailis live around the world, the suit states. “It is the mandate of the Imam to interpret to his community the faith of Islam” and “lead the effort to improve the security and quality of life of his community and the wider societies among which the Ismailis live.
“The Aga Khan’s communications to his community are conveyed in this privileged context and, hence, he is concerned that their integrity should be safeguarded.”
The suit names Toronto lawyer Alnaz Jiwa and Montreal businessman Nagib Tajdin, and unnamed other persons and/or companies that have also sold what it deems
A statement of defence has not yet been filed on behalf of Jiwa, the lawyer told the Star.
When it is, “the (statement of) defence will speak on my behalf,” Jiwa said, declining further comment. The lawsuit says he has operated a website that promotes the sale of a book and MP3 without the Aga Khan’s knowledge or authorization.
Prince Karim Aga Khan succeeded his grandfather to become the 49th hereditary imam of the Ismaili Muslims in 1957. Last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper granted the Aga Khan honorary citizenship for his humanitarianism and long friendship with Canada.
The latest in Law times Canada "By Michael McKiernan | Publication Date: Monday, 19 April 2010
ReplyDeleteA Toronto lawyer says he will still follow the Aga Khan despite a lawsuit the hereditary imam has filed against him.
“I still follow him, absolutely, without any doubt,” Jiwa tells Law Times. “You will get the answer to this when I file the defence,” he says, noting he has yet to appoint a lawyer to act on his behalf.
“I don’t want to make any comments now until my defence is filed. Once I file it, I will set out the circumstances and answer the questions,” he adds.
Brian Gray, a senior partner with Ogilvy Renault LLP who is representing the imam in the suit, provided an e-mailed statement from an Aga Khan spokesperson claiming the defendants had been cautioned numerous times to halt their operation, warnings that included personal pleas from the Aga Khan himself and his brother.
Colleen Spring Zimmerman, a partner with Fogler Rubinoff LLP in Toronto, says she has never seen a case like this one with a religious leader taking on one of his own followers. Nevertheless, the statement of claim alleges Tajdin was asked to stop a similar operation in the early 1990s.
Zimmerman says that piece of information could be crucial when it comes to deciding whether to award the Aga Khan the punitive and exemplary damages he’s looking for in the case.
If a defendant was warned in the past not to do this and now they’ve done it again, the punitive and exemplary damages may come to bear.”
The religious dimension of the case makes the outcome much less predictable, she adds. That could explain why the Aga Khan is claiming a breach of moral rights.
“It’ll be interesting to see from a moral rights point of view whether the defendants have said anything to which he would object and to what extent he has the right to stop the reproduction and distribution of this work solely on the basis of moral rights rather than copyright,” Zimmerman says. “I’ll be very interested to see what the court has to say on that.”
“As has been his systematic practice for many years, the Aga Khan often annotates and edits his texts in accordance with established criteria and well-established guidelines before any publication of them,” the claim states.
Zimmerman says the plaintiff’s decision not to claim an independent copyright on the MP3 recordings was noteworthy.
The recordings are in the Aga Khan’s own voice, but the claim alleges only that they breach his copyright in asmuch as they are “a copy in substantial part” of the Farmans and Talikas in the book. “So if thre’s any issue with the ownership of those literary works, that’s going to be a problem for the plaintiff,” Zimmerman says.
In the e-mailed statement, the spokesperson for the Aga Khan explained he felt the issue of the sound recordings would unnecessarily complicate the claim. It also indicates that photographs in the book raise another question around personality rights, another issue the plaintiff avoided in the claim.
“It was hoped to keep the matter simple by focusing only on the copyright in his written works,” the statement says. “If necessary, these other matters may have to be asserted later.”
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bloglaw - conflict of Intellect and faith
If it is true that the Aga Khan and his brother personally spoke to defendants
before the lawsuit was filed, then it makes no sense whatsoever for Mr Alnaz to
say "I still follow him, absolutely, without any doubt,” This should have
been settled without the need for a lawsuit. As Zimmerman points out the case,
if it proceeds, will be legally challenging & tactically intersting in limiting
the claim of infrigement to try to keep the claim simple.. This is so also
becase the book is alledgedly sold & distributed only to Ismailis, and the
related websites have been publishing similar and other material for many years
I think the 90% of leadership needs help. They are greedy there issues are impulsive obsessive disorder.
ReplyDeleteI am a sham to be ismaili instead of coming together and challenging who appoints this leadership on our behalf and at the end we us a community suffer.
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