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Is this investment report a financial promotion?Edit

According to the FCA, "a person must not, in the course of business, communicate an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (i.e. a financial promotion) unless:

  1. he is an authorised person; or
  2. the content of the communication is approved for the purposes of section 21 by an authorised person; or
  3. the communication is exempt under an order made by the Treasury under section 21(5) – the Financial Promotion Order (as amended)."[1]

For a communication to be considered a financial promotion, the communication must contain an element of invitation or inducement, amongst other things[2]; for a communication to be considered an invitation or inducement, the communication must “have the purpose or intent of leading a person to engage in investment activity".[3]

In relation to the said report/communication, the communicator of the communication is anonymous, and, therefore, the purpose of the communicator, and the purpose of the communication itself, is unknown. The FCA recognises that the matter cannot be without doubt.[4] That said, the purpose of the Stockhub platform is to help a person to make better investment decisions (i.e. it’s not to lead a person to engage in investment activity). Indeed, the purpose of the platform is reflected in the platform's monetization strategy (i.e. donations and advertising). In other words, the owner of the platform (i.e. Stockhub Limited) does not benefit from a person engaging in investment activities in the said investment; the owner benefits from a person making better investment decisions.

Accordingly, it is the view of the Stockhub company that the said investment report is NOT a financial promotion.

Does this investment report violate any copyright laws?Edit

According to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, "Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work or of a performance of a work, does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise) and provided that the work has been made available to the public”.

Factors that have been identified by the courts as relevant in determining whether a particular dealing with a work is fair include:

  • does using the work affect the market for the original work? If a use of a work acts as a substitute for it, causing the owner to lose revenue, then it is not likely to be fair
  • is the amount of the work taken reasonable and appropriate? Was it necessary to use the amount that was taken? Usually only part of a work may be used

On the Stockhub platform, the reason for using the work is to review the work itself and, ultimately, the investment to which the work relates (i.e. for review purposes), and, therefore, it is the view of Stockhub that using the work falls into the fair dealing category provided that 1) the used work is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement and 2) the work has been made available to the public.

It is the view of Stockhub that while in the UK and in many other jurisdictions, an offer to invest in a private investment can only be lawfully made to private members only (i.e. not to the public), the copyrighted work to which the investment relates has been made available to the public. Furthermore, it is the view of Stockhub that the acknowledgement that accompanies the used work is sufficient.

The main purpose of the original work is to enable people to raise funds for their companies faster, and the purpose of the new work is to enable people to make better investment decisions. Accordingly, it is the view of Stockhub that the target audience of the works and the core benefit of the works, and, ultimately, the market of the works, are significantly different. Therefore, it is also the opinion of Stockhub that using the work does not act as a substitute for the work; if anything, it acts as a complement. It's worth nothing that the price of the original work is zero (i.e. there is no fee), and, therefore, the likeliness of the owner of the work losing revenue from the Stockhub platform using the work is zero; the owner of the work makes money from investment commissions when its clients successfully raise funds.

It is the view of Stockhub that in order to conduct an accurate review of the work (i.e. the financial promotion) and, ultimately, the investment to which the work relates (i.e. THIS), the communication of the whole work is required, and, therefore, the amount of the work used by the communicator on the Stockhub platform is reasonable and appropriate.

It's worth noting that facts cannot be copyrighted, so it is the view of Stockhub that even if a fact is not made available to the public (i.e. the fact is made available to the private community only), the fact cannot be copyrighted, and, therefore, using the fact is permissible.

Accordingly, it is the view of Stockhub that the investment report does NOT infringe any copyright laws.

ReferencesEdit