Copyright Blog

On November 9, 2019, photographer Julie Dermansky (“Dermansky”) filed a complaint against New York University (“NYU”) under § 501 of the Copyright Act for the alleged unauthorized reproduction and public display of a copyrighted photograph she took at a Donald Trump rally (the "Photo").

On November 10, 2016, Dr. Seuss Enterprise (“Seuss” or the “Plaintiff”) filed a complaint against ComicMix LLC (“ComicMix”), David Jerrold Friedman a/k/a David Gerrold (“Gerrold”), Ty Templeton (“Templeton”), and Glenn Hauman (“Hauman”) (collectively, the “Defendants”) for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition.

In July 2019 we reported on a copyright infringement suit brought by Linda Woodson, an elementary school teacher in New Jersey. In her complaint, Woodson alleges she wrote a report about her school, and her school’s principal borrowed heavily from Woodson’s report in an article he wrote for the National Association of Elementary School Principal’s (“NAESP”) periodical entitled “Principal.” Woodson purportedly created the report in 2010.

On October 11, 2019, International Education Management Group, Inc. (“IEM”) filed a complaint against Abroad and Future, Inc. and Wei Bao a/k/a Bevan Bao (collectively “BAO”) for, among other things, copyright infringement.

On October 16, 2019, photographer Julie Dermansky ("Dermansky") filed a complaint against the University of Colorado (“University”) for copyright infringement under sections 106 and 501 of the Copyright Act.

On Tuesday, October 22, 2019, the United States House of Representatives voted on the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims (CASE) Act. The Act was approved by the House with a 410-6 vote. As we previously reported, the CASE Act, among other things, creates a copyright small-claims court within the Copyright Office, providing an alternative to litigating in the federal courts.

On October 3, 2019, Pearson Education, Inc.; Elsevier Inc.; Cengage Learning, Inc.; Bedford; Freeman & Worth Publishing Group, LLC d/b/a Macmillan Learning; and McGraw-Hill Global Education Holdings, LLC (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) filed suit alleging copyright infringement against Raheim J. Mofield, a/k/a James Reynolds, individually and d/b/a www.worldmediaincorporated.com (collectively, “Defendants”). In their complaint, Plaintiffs purport that Defendants were, “hiding behind the anonymity of the internet,” and circumvented copyright law by selling unauthorized digital copies of textbooks as well as other copyrighted works to consumers. Plaintiffs state that the Defendants violated 17 U.S.C. § 101 by infringing on the copyrights of Plaintiffs; the Plaintiffs produced a list of works that Defendants have allegedly reproduced and/or distributed in violation of Plaintiff’s copyrights (the “Works”).

On October 3, 2019, Yesh Music, LLC ("Yesh"), filed another law suit alleging copyright infringement and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Yesh brought this suit against Ecoagriculture Partners (“Eco”), Cornell University (“Cornell”), and Groundswell Center for Food and Farm Planning (“Groundswell”) (collectively the “Defendants”). The facts of this case are similar to the facts of Yesh's recent suits against other institutions (you can find posts about these cases here, here, here, and here).

On September 30, 2019, Yesh Music, LLC ("Yesh") continued its string of copyright infringement cases, this time against the Regents of the University of Minnesota (the "University"). The facts of this suit are similar to the facts of other suits Yesh has brought in recent months (you can find posts about these cases here, here, here, here, here, and here).

On August 23, 2019, Yesh Music (“Yesh”) voluntarily dismissed its copyright infringement case against Amity Education Group (“Amity”) with prejudice. The case was dismissed before Amity filed a response. As previously reported, in May 2019, Yesh brought suit against Amity for alleged infringement of an original musical composition entitled "Equinox," which was registered with the US Copyright Office. Amity allegedly used the song in an advertising video on YouTube without obtaining a license from Yesh.

On September 19, 2019, German photographer Marco Verch ("Verch") filed suit against Columbia University ("Columbia") for alleged copyright infringement of one of his photographs.

On June 5th 2019, Syracuse University ("Syracuse") submitted an answer to the complaint from photographer James Bass. As previously reported, in May 2019 Bass brought suit against Syracuse alleging copyright infringement of his photographs of the Syracuse basketball team (the "Photos"). Bass claims he licensed the Photos to Syracuse for use only on social media. However, Bass asserts Syracuse committed copyright infringement by exceeding the scope of the license and using the Photos on billboards, tickets, and programs.

Yesh Music, LLC ("Yesh") brought a case of copyright infringement against Gettysburg College ("Gettysburg"). This is the third in a string of cases brought by the company in recent months; we previously reported on other Yesh cases in May and August of this year. The case against Gettysburg is for allegedly exceeding the scope of a license agreement between Gettysburg and Yesh.

Academic publishers Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Cengage, Bedford, and Elsevier (jointly the "Plaintiffs" or "Publishers") filed a complaint against ten unidentified defendants, their relative trade names, and nine other named defendants (jointly the "Defendants"). The Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants violated federal copyright and trademark laws by “intentionally, advertising, selling, and distributing counterfeit textbooks at the expense of authors, students, publishers, and others.”

On August 8, 2019, Columbia University (“Columbia”) sued Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation (“EIF”), asserting various claims and seeking a declaratory judgment regarding copyright ownership of a multi-volume scholarly encyclopedia, the Encyclopaedia Iranica (the “Work”).

John Durant (“Durant”), a highly acclaimed professional photographer, brought suit against Laureate Education Inc. (“Laureate”) for copyright infringement. Durant alleges in his complaint that Laureate improperly used one of his photographs on its recruiting website.

In late May, Yesh Music, LLC (Yesh) filed suit against St. George University (the University) for copyright infringement. In it's complaint, Yesh alleges St. George University violated both the Copyright Act, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This case is similar to another case we reported on in May in which Yesh brought suit against Amity University.

On April 23, 2019, Dr. Keith Bell voluntarily dismissed his infringement case against Stanford University with prejudice. As previously reported, in March 2019 Bell brought suit against Stanford University for alleged infringement of his sports psychology book entitled Winning Isn’t Normal. The alleged infringement occurred when Stanford’s Senior Associate Athletic Director tweeted an image that contained a selection from Bell’s book. Bell characterized the text in the image as “the heart of the … work.” This is the most recent in a string of cases Bell has filed against individuals and organizations for infringing his book (we previously reported on other cases in 2017 and 2018).