Over the years, there has been speculation over how many copyright infringement lawsuits are actually being filed by stock photo companies. And out of those lawsuits that were filed, what were the outcomes? I have taken the position that in recent years the PROPORTION of lawsuits filed vs. extortion letters is very low, less than 1%. I have also said that the "success" rates for the stock photo industry is very low. What I define as "success" is from the stock photo industry perspective.
They not only have to win a lawsuit but they have to get a judgment that exceeded their legal fees & expenses and actually collect on those "winning cases". Getting a default judgment is relatively easy if defendants don't show up. However, actually collecting on those default judgments are an entirely different animal. In many cases, default judgments are simply "paper wins", not actual monetary wins. The stock photo company is often left with a big legal bill with very little financial reward to show for that "paper win". It is my belief that Masterfile was left with a crushing legal bill with relatively little financial rewards after 2010 which accounted for the sudden drop of their filing lawsuits. It appears that both Getty Images and Corbis did not enjoy much financial success either through their early attempts in filing copyright infringement lawsuits. This is consistent with prior attempts by RIAA, Righthaven, and Prenda. Each of these parties either stopped because of losses from the lawsuit strategy or were entirely put out of business.
People CHOOSING to settle is not counted as a legal victory but would likely be counted as a financial victory for the stock photo company. However, even then, each of the stock photo companies would have incurred a fair amount of legal expenses (such as court costs, filing fees, and attorney fees) along the way.
Vincent K. Tylor, a private photographer from Hawaii, is currently on a tear on the lawsuit front. From what I can tell, there hasn't been a single lawsuit that has "gone all the way". He has successfully scared people into settling. It remains to be seen how long he can keep up his current record. Prior to VKT, Masterfile had the most aggressive lawsuit record from 2009-2011.
I am happy to say that with some exceptions, legal "success" by the stock photo industry has been very low. Sure, there have been occasional lawsuits filed and many were settled along the way. But proportionally speaking, in the last 5 years, less than 1% of all extortion letters ever became a lawsuit. The reason for this low percentage has to do with the large numbers of extortion letters being issued each year. I conservatively estimate the number of extortion letters issued by the stock photo industry/photographers to be around 10,000 per year. To hit a 1% lawsuit filing ratio, 100 copyright infringement lawsuits would have to be filed per year by the entire stock photo industry. And while ELI doesn't track every single company that issues extortion letters, we follow the largest and major players reported to ELI.
In my investigation using dockets.justia.com, I physically tracked and counted copyright infringement lawsuits filed for six companies in the last five years. However, I did not take the time to track the outcome of each of these lawsuits. In the case of Masterfile, it would be a very time-consuming project for the years 2009-2011 to manually analyze 64 lawsuit outcomes. A cursory review shows that many of them settled out of court.
Here are my results with some commentary for unusual deviations.
Getty Images
2014 - 6 so far (5 were boilerplate & settled)
2013 - 2 (1 was for the infamous Virtual Clinics who defaulted.)
2012 - None
2011 - None
2010 - None
2009 - 1 (Advernet, Getty lost even though Advernet stop defending the case!)
2008 - 5
Masterfile
2014 - 1 so far
2013 - None
2012 - 5
2011 - 10
2010 - 39
2009 - 15
2008 - 2
2007 - 1
Corbis
2014 - 1 so far
2013 - None
2012 - None
2011 - None
2010 - 1
2009 - 8
2008 - 0
2007 - 8
Hawaiian Art Network
2014 - None so far
2013 - 1
2012 - 1
2011 - 3 (Filed with Vincent Tylor. 1 was Aloha Plastic Surgery that counter-sued them into a settlement)
2010 - None
2009 - None
Vincent K. Tylor (VKT)
2014 - 13 so far (Vermont Woods twice because their lawyer dropped the earlier one)
2013 - 14
2012 - None
2011 - 3 (Filed via Hawaiian Art Network)
2010 - None
2009 - None
Realtor Jennifer Sherrouse/Atlanta Photgraphy
2013 - 1 so far (still being litigated)
2012 - None
2011 - 1 (settled)
2010 - None
I will be adding to and updating this list as I discover new information and discover other companies and photographers that actively engage in sending extortion letters and filing lawsuits. If anyone has notable companies and photographers we should start tracking, please respond to this thread.
They not only have to win a lawsuit but they have to get a judgment that exceeded their legal fees & expenses and actually collect on those "winning cases". Getting a default judgment is relatively easy if defendants don't show up. However, actually collecting on those default judgments are an entirely different animal. In many cases, default judgments are simply "paper wins", not actual monetary wins. The stock photo company is often left with a big legal bill with very little financial reward to show for that "paper win". It is my belief that Masterfile was left with a crushing legal bill with relatively little financial rewards after 2010 which accounted for the sudden drop of their filing lawsuits. It appears that both Getty Images and Corbis did not enjoy much financial success either through their early attempts in filing copyright infringement lawsuits. This is consistent with prior attempts by RIAA, Righthaven, and Prenda. Each of these parties either stopped because of losses from the lawsuit strategy or were entirely put out of business.
People CHOOSING to settle is not counted as a legal victory but would likely be counted as a financial victory for the stock photo company. However, even then, each of the stock photo companies would have incurred a fair amount of legal expenses (such as court costs, filing fees, and attorney fees) along the way.
Vincent K. Tylor, a private photographer from Hawaii, is currently on a tear on the lawsuit front. From what I can tell, there hasn't been a single lawsuit that has "gone all the way". He has successfully scared people into settling. It remains to be seen how long he can keep up his current record. Prior to VKT, Masterfile had the most aggressive lawsuit record from 2009-2011.
I am happy to say that with some exceptions, legal "success" by the stock photo industry has been very low. Sure, there have been occasional lawsuits filed and many were settled along the way. But proportionally speaking, in the last 5 years, less than 1% of all extortion letters ever became a lawsuit. The reason for this low percentage has to do with the large numbers of extortion letters being issued each year. I conservatively estimate the number of extortion letters issued by the stock photo industry/photographers to be around 10,000 per year. To hit a 1% lawsuit filing ratio, 100 copyright infringement lawsuits would have to be filed per year by the entire stock photo industry. And while ELI doesn't track every single company that issues extortion letters, we follow the largest and major players reported to ELI.
In my investigation using dockets.justia.com, I physically tracked and counted copyright infringement lawsuits filed for six companies in the last five years. However, I did not take the time to track the outcome of each of these lawsuits. In the case of Masterfile, it would be a very time-consuming project for the years 2009-2011 to manually analyze 64 lawsuit outcomes. A cursory review shows that many of them settled out of court.
Here are my results with some commentary for unusual deviations.
Getty Images
2014 - 6 so far (5 were boilerplate & settled)
2013 - 2 (1 was for the infamous Virtual Clinics who defaulted.)
2012 - None
2011 - None
2010 - None
2009 - 1 (Advernet, Getty lost even though Advernet stop defending the case!)
2008 - 5
Masterfile
2014 - 1 so far
2013 - None
2012 - 5
2011 - 10
2010 - 39
2009 - 15
2008 - 2
2007 - 1
Corbis
2014 - 1 so far
2013 - None
2012 - None
2011 - None
2010 - 1
2009 - 8
2008 - 0
2007 - 8
Hawaiian Art Network
2014 - None so far
2013 - 1
2012 - 1
2011 - 3 (Filed with Vincent Tylor. 1 was Aloha Plastic Surgery that counter-sued them into a settlement)
2010 - None
2009 - None
Vincent K. Tylor (VKT)
2014 - 13 so far (Vermont Woods twice because their lawyer dropped the earlier one)
2013 - 14
2012 - None
2011 - 3 (Filed via Hawaiian Art Network)
2010 - None
2009 - None
Realtor Jennifer Sherrouse/Atlanta Photgraphy
2013 - 1 so far (still being litigated)
2012 - None
2011 - 1 (settled)
2010 - None
I will be adding to and updating this list as I discover new information and discover other companies and photographers that actively engage in sending extortion letters and filing lawsuits. If anyone has notable companies and photographers we should start tracking, please respond to this thread.