Buzzfeed Faces $3.6 Million Lawsuit for Copyright Infringement

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

It seems like all of those llama slideshows might be coming back to bite BuzzFeed.
The website, which is known for aggregating images from other sources, is being sued by a professional photographer whose photo was used in a typical BuzzFeed post called “The 30 Funniest Header Faces.”
The Guardian:
His picture of a grimacing player was removed from the article – now titled “The 29 Funniest Header Faces” – after he made an initial complaint in May 2011.
But in a lawsuit filed in New York, Eiselein accused Buzzfeed of “direct and contributory infringement” and claims he is owed $3.6m after his work was shared widely across the web.

http://spectator.org/blog/2013/06/18/buzzfeed-faces-36-million-laws

[lucia]

On the one hand, $3.6 million is ridiculous. On the other hand, Buzzfeed's business model is copyright violation.  So, I don't have much sympathy for them. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

[DavidVGoliath]

On the one hand, $3.6 million is ridiculous. On the other hand, Buzzfeed's business model is copyright violation.  So, I don't have much sympathy for them. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

I don't think the photographer or attorney expect to net $3.6m in damages... however, much like any damages related lawsuit, the "form" is to go in with a high number and see what the courts think in terms of validity of claim.

I'm also 100% with Lucia on the business model of buzzfeed.com and similar sites - they only exist because they appropriate and redistribute the work of others and hope that they're assess are covered by DMCA and fair use exceptions, whilst earning a bucket of advertising revenue in the process.

I'll be watching the outcome of this suit very closely.

[DavidVGoliath]

Oh dear, I've just noticed that the photographer filed suit as a pro se litigant.

/facepalm/

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

EFF has writtern a great article, as to why this case will not succeed...it will probably end before it begins..

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/buzzfeed-faces-36-million-copyright-suit-not-so-much

[stinger]

My guess is that if this guy was ever serious, he would have an attorney leading the charge.  This had to be done for the publicity - or the guy made a huge error in judgement.

[DavidVGoliath]

This had to be done for the publicity - or the guy made a huge error in judgement.

I'm going to go with the latter. I'm sure that buzzfeed.com will piss someone off soon enough whom actually has all their ducks in a row with regards to timely and correct registration of their own works  but, for now... yeah, this isn't going to get very far.