As this story has spread I have heard from a number of lawyers who have concurred with your opinion that the lower court should not have adjudicated this case. However, I wonder if there are other ways to look at the case. Was it strictly a copyright case? Or could the judge have viewed it more of an issue of property? Even though the Copyright Law is clear on the issue of jurisdiction, isn’t it possible that the small claims court, as more of a binding arbitration court, would indeed be able to hear a case such as this? Whatever the case, the judge seemed to have no problem at all ruling swiftly and confidently. And the defendant never raised the issue of jurisdiction. So who is to say others might not have success with a similar approach.

You might be interested to know, however, that the small claims court was without jurisdiction to hear the photographer’s case. Federal law vests exclusive jurisdiction for all copyright claims in federal court. See 28 USC 1338(a). No state court, let alone a small claims court, has the authority to hear a copyright infringement case. Moreover, there is no mention that the photographer had obtained a copyright registration for the photograph prior to filing suit. Such a registration is a mandatory jurisdictional prerequisite for filing a copyright infringement lawsuit. See 15 USC 411(a).

This inability to litigate a copyright infringement claim as a small claims court matter is precisely the reason why the Copyright Office provided testimony to Congress in 2006 suggesting that such a remedy be built into the Copyright Act: http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat032906.html. To date, no such allowance has been made in the statute.

In contrast to these jurisdictional requirements for a copyright infringement suit, there are no such limitations on the kind of “take-down” notice that Mr. Boffoli sent to the ISP under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Such DMCA notices may be sent even without a copyright registration.

Running an international digital photography site I am constantly warning people to use low resolution small images to reduce the instances of image theft, it is so nice to see an article where the thief has actually received their just desserts.

PLEASE let thisbe a warning to both photographers that they are constantly under threat of having their work stolen and to the thieves that they cannot get away with stealing other peoples work!

To Mr Christopher Boffoli, Sir I take my hat off to you for doing the right thing and I am really pleased you got the result above, well done.