The photographer’s mere showing of removal of embedded copyright management information (CMI) in hotel photographs is insufficient to meet the scienter requirement.
The federal appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia has refused to reinstate a case brought by a photographer claiming a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against a hotel intermediary that provided hotel photographs to travel websites. In affirming the district court’s summary judgment ruling, the federal appeals court concluded that the photographer failed to show how the intermediary between hotels and online travel agents met the scienter requirement under the DMCA. The appeals court held that a mere showing of removal of embedded copyright management information (CMI), leading to the possibility that an infringer could use the photos undetected, is insufficient to meet the scienter requirement (Victor Elias Photography, LLC v. Ice Portal, Inc., August 12, 2022, Covington, V.).
Case date: 12 August 2022
Case number: No. 21-11892
Court: United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
_____________________________
To make sure you do not miss out on regular updates from the Kluwer Copyright Blog, please subscribe here.
Kluwer IP Law
The 2022 Future Ready Lawyer survey showed that 79% of lawyers think that the importance of legal technology will increase for next year. With Kluwer IP Law you can navigate the increasingly global practice of IP law with specialized, local and cross-border information and tools from every preferred location. Are you, as an IP professional, ready for the future?
Learn how Kluwer IP Law can support you.
