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Court Upholds Monastery's Copyright Claims Against Former Member

By Howard M. Friedman

In Society of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Inc. v. Archbishop Gregory, (D MA, Dec. 3, 2010), a Massachusetts federal district court upheld copyright infringement claims brought by an Orthodox monastery against Archbishop Gregory,  a former member of the monastery.  Gregory posted on his website portions of English translations of six religious works. The monastery holds copyrights on the translations. Gregory was involved with others in creating the translations when he was at the monastery. Sales of copies of the works help sustain the monastery financially.  The court rejected various challenges to the validity of the monastery's copyrights and also rejected defendants' fair use defense. It granted the monastery's motion for summary judgment on the infringement claims and gave the monastery until Dec. 17 to elect whether it wants a trial on damages or sill settle for a judgment based on the statutory minimum damages of $750 per work infringed. Wednesday's National Law Journal reported on the decision.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 10, 2010 (boomark / email).