Digital BW, The Print

Cort Anderson wrote:

>I also had an IP attorney suggest that if you copyright a large number 
>of images in one batch that they could be perceived has having a lower 
>value because of the greater number.
>
>I am not an attorney and am just repeating what I have learned from 
>what I consider good sources.
>
>  
>
Nor am I..

But, that valuation as a portion of the total issue came up in the 
seminal Texaco case..

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION v. TEXACO INC., 60 F.3d 913 (2nd Cir. 1994)

To cut to the chase:

"The third factor, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, 
weighed heavily in favor of Academic Press. Texaco attempted to argue 
that each article represented only about 4% of the copyrighted journal. 
They argued that the copyrighted work was a compilation. The individual 
authors had assigned their interest to the publisher in exchange for 
having their work published. Texaco argued that because the entire copy 
of the publication had not been copied, they had not infringed on the 
copyright. The Court found the argument to be unpersuasive and 
determined that it would be extremely expensive and unreasonable for 
Academic Press to register each copyright for each article in every 
publication with the Copyright Office."

http://www.jontzlaw.com/newsletters/copyright.htm

So, simply registering a lot of works in one volume shouldn't have any 
bearing on perception of value...

BUT, you can only recover  that $200 - $150,000 per work /  pre 
infringer..  That means if I infringe by publishing the same copy of one 
picture on ten websites you only get one award, and, here's the downside 
to registering a volume.. a court may decide that if I use ten different 
images from that volume, that I have violated your copyright on only one 
work - the volume (i.e. I've only violated your copyright once even 
though I used ten of your images).  So, the more works you register in 
one volume, the less likely you can get multiple awards against the same 
infringing party.

 In any case,  we could go on and on about actual damages vs. statutory 
damages, but it all begins to make my head hurt, so I'm not going to 
prattle on about this..

The basic lesson is: to get statutory damages (usually more attractive 
than compensatory actual damages) and attorney's fees, you need to have 
the image registered..

You can find out more at:

http://www.krages.com/copy1.htm

and

http://www.dinoart.com/publications/prt1pg02.html

 
Keith Krebs

"Just some guy," caretaker of the Multiverse's largest EPSON printer 
User Community (highly recommended by Vogon Poets and MegaDodo 
Publications), at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EPSON_Printers/
and  the Multiverse's largest Canon printer User  Community at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Canon-printers
"For the rest of you out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together 
guys"