Psihoyos v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Plaintiff filed suit against publisher Wiley under the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 101 et seq., based on Wiley's publication of textbooks containing eight of plaintiff's photographs. The district court concluded that the applicable three-year statute of limitations barred none of plaintiff's infringement claims because plaintiff, exercising reasonable diligence, did not discover the infringements until fewer than three years prior to bringing the suit. Nonetheless, the district court granted Wiley's motion for summary judgment as to several of the infringement claims on the ground that plaintiff had failed to register the relevant photographs with the Copyright Office prior to instituting suit pursuant to section 411(a). The court held that copyright infringement claims did not accrue until actual or constructive discovery of the relevant infringement and that the Act's statute of limitations did not bar any of plaintiff's infringement claims; the court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's claims relating to the Narcoleptic Dog and Dinamation photos where the district court acted within its discretion to partially deny plaintiff leave to amend his complaint; the court discerned no error in the district court's denial of Wiley's motion for remittitur or a new trial; and the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to alter the jury's award of statutory damages. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Psihoyos v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc." on Justia Law