Jury awards a photographer $1,315,800

Another example of the importance of registering your images.

Full article:
http://www.pdnonline.c​om …vnu_content_id=​1003650053

Excerpt:
A jury in Seattle awarded a photographer $1,315,800 in a copyright infringement lawsuit Thursday.
(The jury) awarded Shugart damages of $500,000 for removal of copyright management information and $303,000 for failure to return images. The jury also said Shugart is entitled to $500,000 in statutory damages related to the copyright infringement.

Shugart says he learned the benefits of registering his images with the U.S. Copyright Office, since he was not able to defend his copyrights in the suit without having registered the images first.

"Register your image as soon as you possibly can," Shugart advises.

Most gratifying to see that.

Thx for posting the link.

FWIW, online (C) filing services:
http://www.onestopcopy​righting.com/?ad=$74Co​pyrightService

(C) education/other resources for DIY
http://www.photoattorn​ey.com …-copyright-resources.html

Excellent. The days of copyright abuse are still with us though.

People still don't get that when you hire (me) a photographer you aren't buying images, you are buying my services to create a licensed image for you. If you want to BUY my images, then you pay more.

Lovely.

..........he got much more because they maniuplated the images in an attempt to avert paying him.

The (C) is step one, two is digital rights management.

Welcome to the second century of photography.

cosworth wrote in post #4070237
Excellent. The days of copyright abuse are still with us though.

People still don't get that when you hire (me) a photographer you aren't buying images, you are buying my services to create a licensed image for you. If you want to BUY my images, then you pay more.

Lovely.

Exactly.

I just had a client who told me " I will be using these for advertising/ The images are of me, this has nothing to do with rights. I've never heard of anything like this before" This by the way is after I told them seven times that rights raise the price of pictures.

I guess they expected to get away with adverising my image for $25.00.

Needless to say, the client didn't follow with the shoot - and I am glad.

If he didn't register the image, he wouldn't get the statutory damages of $500,000, and it might impact the other $500,000 award as well. In his case, the $45 registration fee made a 1/2 to 1 million dollar difference!!

cskn0125 wrote in post #4070868
Exactly.

I just had a client who told me " I will be using these for advertising/ The images are of me, this has nothing to do with rights. I've never heard of anything like this before" This by the way is after I told them seven times that rights raise the price of pictures.

I guess they expected to get away with adverising my image for $25.00.

Needless to say, the client didn't follow with the shoot - and I am glad.

I am sure the client found someone who is willing to give away the rights for $25.00. We must educate buyers as well as producers of photography.

So do you guys register ALL you pictures or just ones you're "licensing" to a client? Wow this is the first I've heard of this and am quite shocked. Do you feel like you get less business when you tell the client they don't even own the pictures?

I guess if you're good/professional enough you can pull this stuff, but for most amateurs it might be flattering for them to use your images in more places than one. I know I would be.

another resource.

Any lawyers in the house?

Here's a question: if you were to assemble one of those "do-it-yourself" books and have a company such as mpix print it, then copyrighted the book, would that include each individual image in it? In other words, could you save the expense of otherwise registering each individual image? Just a question and a thought.

$1,315,800 !!!

Now that's what I call a lens budget.

You're missing a point? You can © an unlimited # of web sized images on a CD for $45.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #4075610
You're missing a point? You can © an unlimited # of web sized images on a CD for $45.

No, actually I am not 'missing a point'. I left out a word: registered. I assumed in the context of the entire thread, that would be understood. As I read the various sources of info of services that will register an image with the copyright office for a fee, they speak in singular terms; i.e., one image. My question is that if a book of images is registered, would that registered status inherently be extended to any single image within the content of the book.

You've been here long enough to know better?

PhotosGuy wrote in post #4075896
You've been here long enough to know better?

Yea, maybe so. But I always try to keep posts as short and easy to read as possible. I just assume people read the entire thread and that anything already contained within the thread does not have to be repeated.