Online Image Infringement And The Statutory-Damages Threat

By Daniel Mazanec (February 20, 2018, 1:03 PM EST) -- Technologies developed over the last few years have made it easier and cheaper for photographers to police copyright infringement on the web. Numerous vendors offer owners of copyrighted images a full suite of investigative and enforcement services to efficiently secure settlement payments from infringers without any out-of-pocket investment. The photographer just uploads her images to the vendor's website, which then uses facial-recognition software to crawl the web searching for potential infringements of those images. When a potential infringement is discovered, the vendor or photographer sends a letter threatening legal action if payment in the amount demanded is not received by a certain date. In addition to a healthy dose of bold font and aggressive tone, these demands almost always highlight the statutory damages available under the Copyright Act....

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