From: Mark Roberts
John Sessoms wrote:
I do know one person who had to go to court to "collect" on a copyright
infringement. Or *NOT* "collect" ...
His advice was if you have to go to court, you've already lost. Be sure
you find a lawyer who will take the case on a contingency fee basis.
He was a commercial photographer & the image was a portfolio image he
had created to demonstrate his chops (i.e. not work for hire or anything
like that).
The infringer was a small corporation who refused to settle & tied the
matter up in court for several years. When they finally lost, they
declared bankruptcy & went out of business. After the dust settled the
corporation had no assets left that could be attached to collect the
judgment.
And the infringers were already back in business under a new incorporation.
What was the name of your friend?
And what was the name of his lawyer, because he definitely had the
world's shittiest IP lawyer. The advice that "if you have to go to
court you've already lost" applies to the infringer, because copyright
law heavily favors the copyright owner (assuming the copyright is
*registered*).
I recommend reading the regular Copyright Law column in Photoshop User
magazine.
Not really a friend. He was a guest lecturer I met when I was in school.
I don't remember his name. If I saw one of the images he showed us
again, I'd recognize it and could remember his name from there, but I'm
horrible about names.
I can't even remember which teacher brought him in. He wasn't there to
talk about copyright or registration. It was just a story he attached to
one the works he was showing us. He was really there to talk about
building an image & lighting it.
The lesson I took from the story was registration is good, but it's not
a panacea.
Maybe he did have the shittiest lawyer. Or maybe the infringer's lawyers
were just smarter crooks than his were. It's as much a lesson in the
reality of corporate "ethics" as it is copyright law.
One point he made was if his work hadn't been registered, he wouldn't
have found a lawyer willing to take the case in the first place.
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