Removing Digital Watermark is Anticircumvention Violation
A pro se plaintiff obtained judgment for copyright infringement and anticircumvention violations in Gregerson v. Vilana Financial, Inc., 2008 WL 451060 (D. Minn. 2/15/08) (previously posted here 9/12/07 and here 1/31/07).
Vilana copied two of Gregerson's photographs, and the court had previously granted him summary judgment as to copyright infringement liability. After a bench trial, the court awarded him damages of $9,462 on the copyright infringement claims. The more important issue was anticircumvention. Vilana removed a digital watermark from one of the photographs. The court held this was an anticircumvention violation, see 17 U.S.C. § 1202(b)(1), and awarded Gregerson statutory damages of $10,000. In reaching this conclusion, the court based its analysis on IG Group, Ltd. v. Wiesner Publishing, LLC, 409 F.Supp.2d 587 (D.N.J. 2006).
