Litigation

Removing Digital Watermark is Anticircumvention Violation

By H. William Allen et al.

A pro se plaintiff obtained judgment for copyright infringement and anticircumvention violations in Gregerson v. Vilana Financial, Inc., 2008 WL 451060 (D. Minn. 2/15/08) (previously posted here 9/12/07 and here 1/31/07).

Vilana copied two of Gregerson's photographs, and the court had previously granted him summary judgment as to copyright infringement liability. After a bench trial, the court awarded him damages of  $9,462 on the copyright infringement claims. The more important issue was anticircumvention. Vilana removed a digital watermark from one of the photographs. The court held this was an anticircumvention violation, see 17 U.S.C. § 1202(b)(1), and awarded Gregerson statutory damages of $10,000. In reaching this conclusion, the court based its analysis on IG Group, Ltd. v. Wiesner Publishing, LLC, 409 F.Supp.2d 587 (D.N.J. 2006).

Full post as published by Arkansas Business Litigation Blog on February 27, 2008 (boomark / email).