Photographer Richard Sobol, faced with counterclaims that he repeatedly lied to the Copyright Office to obtain his registrations, opted to settle his infringement suit against the makers of a Barney Frank documentary. Sobol had asserted that filmmakers Sheila Canavan and Michael Chandler had used ten of his photographs without license. Canavan and Chandler asserted that Sobol had lied to the Copyright Office about the initial publication date of the photographs and that he was the photographer on three of them, and that some of his submissions were actually screenshots from the documentary. Sobol’s settlement seems to validate the defendants’ positions – he agreed to dismiss all claims with prejudice, and admitted that the film did not infringe his copyright, that he did not take three of the photographs covered by one of the registrations, that six of the photographs covered by the registration were published more than five years prior to registration, and that two registrations were invalid and must be cancelled. Sobol agreed to cancel the registrations. Sobol further acknowledged that the defendants expected to recover more than $480,000 in damages should the case proceed, and agreed to pay an undisclosed amount as a part of the settlement.
D. Mass. IP Litigation Blog 