Statutory Damages in Copyright Litigation

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Article published in 81 New York State Bar Journal on p. 30 November/December, 2009. To read the full article download the PDF here, or go to the following link on the Tannenbaum Helpern website: http://tinyurl.com/y9waohu.

The article answers the following questions:

1. May the copyright holder recover statutory damages for post-registration infringing conduct that began pre-registration;

2. Will multiple infringements warrant multiple awards of statutory damages;

3. Does the one work award limitation in the last sentence of 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(1) refers to copyrighted work plaintiff creates which is then infringed or to the work defendant creates from multiple, separately copyrightable works of plaintiff;

4.  Whether the election to accept statutory damages at trial moots the right to seek actual damages on appeal;

5. Will the infringing conduct be found to be willful, non-willful or innocent; and

6. Why there is confusion and uncertainty re the amount of statutory damages to be awarded.

Take a look; you may find this discussion useful.

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