Brammer v. Violent Hues Productions, LLC
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
922 F.3d 255 (2019)
- Written by Liz Nakamura, JD
Facts
Russell Brammer (plaintiff) was a commercial stock photographer. Brammer uploaded his photograph of Washington, D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, entitled “Adams Morgan at Night,” to Flickr, a stock image website, with notice of copyright. Brammer subsequently sold prints of the photo and licensed it twice for online use. Fernando Mico (defendant), the owner of Violent Hues Productions, LLC (Violent Hues) (defendant), copied Brammer’s photo from Flickr, cropped it to remove negative space, and posted it on Violent Hues’ website without attribution and without paying a licensing fee. Violent Hues’ website was a commercial website promoting a for-profit film festival, and Brammer’s photo was used on the page promoting tourist attractions near the festival. Brammer’s photo was featured along with two other photographs, and all three photographs were cropped to the same size and shape. After Brammer discovered the infringing use, he requested compensation from Violent Hues. Violent Hues removed the photo from the website but did not compensate Brammer. Brammer sued for copyright infringement. Violent Hues countered and raised the fair-use affirmative defense. The district court granted summary judgment to Violent Hues. Brammer appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Motz, J.)
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