Well, snap, no indirect profits in this photo
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but New York-based photographer Taea Thale could not convince a court that her photograph was worth compensation after Apple included it a 2010 commercial. The U.S. District Court in Northern California granted a partial summary judgment in favor of Apple Inc., dismissing Thale’s claim for indirect profits from the tech giant’s alleged copyright infringement. Thale photographed Zooey Deschenel’s band She & Him, licensing the picture to Merge Media Ltd. for limited use in magazines and posters to promote the band. Though that license excluded rights to promote other entities or products, Apple used the photo in a national television commercial for the iPhone 3GS. The 30-second ad, Concert, aired between April 5, 2010 and April 18, 2010 and displayed Thale’s photo in a montage for not more than five seconds. Thale sued Apple for infringement in 2011, seeking under 17 U.S.C. Section 504(a)(1) and (b), “damages in the amount of her actual damages and any profits of the defendant attributable to the infringing acts.” The court identified a sole issue: whether Thale could show the required, causal nexus between her claimed infringement and indirect profits she sought under section 504 related to this commerical: U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed with Apple, finding Thale failed to “proffer sufficient non-speculative evidence to support a causal relationship between the infringement and...
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