Penza, 8 June 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza region Arbitration Court case of “VolgaInterMedia” against the individual businessman Alexander Tuzov for illegal use of PenzaNews copyrighted work is, once again, suspended for a week – this time until June 15.

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Before the beginning of the fourth court session on Wednesday, June 8, the defendant presented the lawyer Pavel Stukalov an additional court response while in the court corridor.

After a detailed study of the document of several pages signed by Alexander Tuzov, the representatives of the complainant concluded that the document contains no links to laws it refers to. During the court session, they noted that the defendant once again attempted to abuse the law by providing a document – which, albeit legally invalid, still needs to be included in the case files – behind the deadline.

During another emotional speech that ensued, defendant Alexander Tuzov again attempted to persuade the court that he is not guilty by claiming to be an “information intermediary” that acts solely within the law, while at the same time claiming that the complainant did not provide the sources for the photos. However, as representatives of the complainant pointed out, the originals had been provided by the court back in February 2016 and even inspected during the previous session, along with inspection of the metadata that described their origin and the photo cameras used in their creation.

Moreover, Alexander Tuzov found it necessary to claim loudly several times that he is a former security services officer, receives military service pension, has two sons and does not earn big income.

“When taking the decision, I ask the court to keep in mind, your justice, that this weird multi-million case of dubious basis that has no precedent in Penza against an individual […] creates very heavy burden not just on me as the defendant, but also on my family. As you know, I am a military service pensioner, a pensioner with very little income,” said the individual businessman.

The representatives of the complainant reacted with particular emotions to Alexander Tuzov’s panic-filled phrase “they’ll be taking everything from me now,” likely with his resort-class cottage located in the Akhuny residential area of Penza city and the Honda CR-V crossover car.

“But I am not guilty, I did everything,” the defendant persuaded the court.

During the session, representatives of the complainant made a claim to once again reduce the case amount, and pointed out that even though judge Svetlana Novikova several times asked the parties to settle the issue out of court, Alexander Tuzov failed to use the offered opportunity to do so.

As representatives of the defendant reminded, the case features 53 documented facts of illegal use of copyrighted work, and since this number is quite big, the defendant asks to reduce the claim amount to the minimum set in the Civil Code – 10,000 rubles per photo, or a total of 530,000 rubles plus court expenses.

The PenzaNews editor-in-chief Pavel Polosin, who represented the complainant during the session, expressed an opinion that the new claim amount should be suitable for both parties – at least since the legally set minimal amount for claims would be very hard to lower even further.

Judge Svetlana Novikova accepted the claim. Following that, the two parties in the case continued the debates over the previously mentioned points.

However, Alexander Tuzov failed to answer a number of basic questions asked by the PenzaNews editor-in-chief Pavel Polosin. One of them was about whether the defendant accepts the authorship of the third parties (PenzaNews employees) that mentioned so in their claims, as well as the fact that “VolgaInterMedia” holds the copyright for the photos in question.

After Alexander Tuzov demonstrably ignored the questions, and later made a remark that he will be answering only written question, judge Svetlana Novikova reminded that spoken debate is a regular part of the court session.

“Are you only able to answer written questions?” the judge asked.

“Yes, I, I… I cannot answer. I can answer any question! I have three upper [sic] educations after all! But I only want to answer written questions,” Alexander Tuzov said.

“I am not ready to answer them right now, I am very emotionally perturbed,” he admitted.

Nevertheless, during the June 8 court session, Alexander Tuzov confirmed that he realizes his breach of copyright against “VolgaInterMedia.”

“I realize that somebody violated them [sic] rights, they really did make those photos. I am adequate, understand me, I understand that. I also understand their feelings, I am a parent, thank God, you understand, I have two kids, I am an educator, a teacher, a military man,” the defendant said.

In conclusion, judge Svetlana Novikova postponed the session until June 15.