N.S. offshore regulator asks Federal Court to strip Calgary firm’s copyright

Nova Scotia’s offshore regulator is asking the Federal Court to strip the copyright from a Calgary company’s images of the ocean floor.

It’s the latest move in an ongoing legal battle between Geophysical Service Inc. and the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board over millions of dollars’ worth of seismic maps and data.

Geophysical alleges it is a case of copyright fraud. The company says it had to provide its seismic data to the board, which then turned around and gave it away for free to third parties.

Geophysical filed a Federal Court claim of copyright infringement. This month, the board responded with a motion to have the court strike down the copyright of the data itself.

The board argues the dispute centres around information or data, which cannot be copyrighted.

Geophysical has not yet formally responded, but told The Chronicle Herald the board’s motion was an attempt to prey upon the ignorance of how the data is collected.

“Everyone understands that a photograph is copyright. Nobody disputes that. Well, why would you dispute seismic data,” Geophysical chairman and chief operating officer Paul Einarsson said.

The company uses transmitters to shoot sound waves tens of thousands of feet underwater. By measuring the waves as they bounce back, maps of the ocean floor can be developed.

The data is valuable to companies doing offshore energy work, but Einarsson says he’s been effectively shut down by the petroleum boards in Nova Scotia and in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The company has launched over a dozen court actions against various government agencies, though some of those are over access to information requests.

In May, the Federal Court rejected an injunction request from Geophysical to force the Nova Scotia petroleum board to remove some of the company’s data from the board’s website.

The judge ruled the company failed to prove it would sustain irreparable harm if the injunction was not ordered.

That same month the Nova Scotia Supreme Court also ruled in the board’s favour, saying that as the regulator it has the right to collect and store seismic data generated by private companies.

Einarsson said he believes the Nova Scotia court system is biased against him.

“We have to try and defend our interests,” he said. “I’m terrified that I’m not going to get a fair shake.”

Geophysical had been represented by Stewart McKelvey but is now represented by O’Brien Anthony White of St. John’s, N.L.

The board said it would not comment about a case previously before the courts, but did point to the two recent decisions against Geophysical.