Photog Wins $12 Million Copyright Verdict

In case you need inspiration to register your photos with the U.S. Copyright Office, here's one: architectural and interior design photographer Liz Ordonez-Dawes has been awarded more than $12 million for copyright infringement. Not only had Ordonez-Dawes registered her images with the Copyright Office, but the defendants never filed a response to the Amended Complaint, which alleged that the defendants did not have Ordonez-Dawes' permission or authority when they distributed seven of her images of high-end houses to third-party advertisers. The court awarded Ordonez-Dawes $150,000 for each photograph, which ads up to $12,089,260 for damages and profits.

You can read all of the legal fine print of the case on attorney Carolyn E. Wright's Photo Attorney blog.

Update: Ordonez-Dawes has shared some lessons she learned from her case. You can read them here on Wright's blog .

Comments

[Bill]

I bet she will never see a dime of that money.

[MarcW]

Actually, the court, as per the copyright law, offered the photographer *either* statutory damages, *or* actual damages. In this case, which is unique in my knowledge as a copyright lawyer, actual damages were *greater* than even the maximum allowable statutory damages, so that's probably what she picked.

Actual damages in an infringement case are gross revenues less allowable deductions, with the defendant having the burden to prove deductions. Here, the pictures were used to sell ~$12M worth of houses, so gross revenues were that much. Since the defendant didn't produce any proof of deductions, the award was for the entire amount.

The court indicated that statutory damages were *still* in excess of a million dollars in this case, but you can't get both, so I'm sure she went with the actuals. Her registrations would have been invaluable had the defendants answered, and they did make her case much easier to prove.

Unfortunately, both corporate defendants seem to have gone out of business, but also unusual in this case is that she got the individual owner named, and since he didn't answer, the judgment is good against him too. I'm guessing with half of twelve mil up for grabs, any collection agent she hires will look for the defendant and his personal assets REALLY hard.

M