Sound the alarm? Registration required to file infringement lawsuit.

In response to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Fourth Estate Public Benefits Corp.  v. Wall-Street.com, some are warning photographers that it’s now more difficult to make claims for copyright infringement. In its order, the Supreme Court held that you must have received the copyright registration certificate before filing a copyright infringement lawsuit. Should we panic? Before this Supreme Court decision, very few courts would allow a copyright infringement lawsuit to proceed with only an application for registration. Most courts required a registered copyright. This new ruling doesn’t change much for photographers. The statute of limitations is 3 years to sue for copyright infringement. So only if time is running out to sue, then the few months it takes to register your copyright is not a big deal. You can use that time to try to negotiate a settlement (which is how the majority of infringement claims are resolved). A recent poll here shows…

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