Falcon Foto has won its copyright infringement suit against content reseller Blaine R. Richard, III dba Graphical Images of Florida, to the tune of $1.8 million in damages. "We believe that it is one of the largest awards for actual damages handed down relating to copyright infringement over the Internet," says Falcon attorney Gary Kramer.
Falcon sued Richard over Bodacious Beauties, a CD-ROM Richard sold over his CD-Masters.com Web site. The disc included over two thousand images belonging to Falcon Foto. Falcon didn't object to Richard selling the disc so long as he paid required royalties, but Falcon did object to Richard re-selling the material's rights to Web masters - "purportedly giving Web masters rights to post Falcon's images on their Web sites," Kramer says. "By doing so, the court held Richard exceeded his license and became an intentional infringer of Falcon's intellectual property rights."
The ruling from Judge Jack B. Weinstein, Jr. acknowledged not just the potential sales revenue of the material but the "enormous economic value of adult content in particular," Kramer says.
Falcon has an erotic image library of nearly 1.3 million images. The damages levied against Richard amounted, in effect, to about $863 per image. "Assuming that each image in its library is worth at least (that)," Kramer says, "it is clear that Falcon Foto has an intellectual property estate worth vigorously defending."
Weinstein also ordered Richard to quit disseminating Falcon images. Falcon plans to acquire any Web sites, domains, or other Net assets now held by Richard. Weinstein's order also demands any Web sites who bought any of the Falcon material from Richard to pull the content off those sites at once.
"(This) demonstrates that courts are recognizing that adult content is extremely valuable and are ready, willing, and able to protect intellectual property rights," Kramer says. "For content providers, the ruling provides comfort that valuable intellectual property rights can be protected in federal courts. For Web masters, the ruling should be interpreted as a warning that content providers like Falcon will vigorously enforce and protect their intellectual property rights and that Internet piracy can be a losing proposition."
