Re: Re: Question on liability for falsely asserting copyright

Re-sent for Dodi:

In a declaratory judgment action that proves false the assertion of copyright, the prevailing party should be entitled to costs and attorneys fees (at the discretion of the court).

17 USC 5050: "In any civil action under this title, the court in its discretion may allow the recovery of full costs by or against any party other than the United States or an officer thereof. Except as otherwise provided by this title, the court may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs."

Although I am not aware of any declaratory action case in which Section 505 costs and fees were awarded, when Dan Fogerty won his defense of a claim of copyright infringement, the Supreme Court very forcefully stated that a prevailing defendant was just as entitled as a prevailing plaintiff would have been, given that it is just as important to prevent copyrights from being asserted beyond their limits as it is to enforce them up to their limits.

John

John T. Mitchell
http://interactionlaw.com

On May 26, 2006, at 12:10 PM, Dodi Schultz wrote:

> John T. Mitchell, what was your reply? My system is configured to
> read only
> plaintext, so your message arrived textless. I'm really interested.
>
> --DS
>
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Received on Sat May 27 2006 - 01:10:00 GMT