Opinion ID: 4990
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: availability of statutory damages

Text: Mason sought statutory damages rather than actual damages. The district court held that section 412 of the Copyright Act precludes an award of statutory damages (and attorney's fees) for any alleged infringement of all but one of Mason's maps. See Mason, 741 F.Supp. at 1285–87. Mason calls that holding error, but we agree with the district court. Section 412 provides that: no award of statutory damages or of attorney's fees, as provided by sections 504 and 505, shall be made for ... (2) any infringement of copyright commenced after first publication of the work and before the effective date of its registration, unless such registration is made within three months after the first publication of the work. 17 U.S.C.A. § 412 (West Supp.1992). Mason argues that Congress' use of the phrase for any infringement in this section reveals its intent that courts treat each of a defendant's infringing acts separately and deny statutory damages only for those specific infringing acts that commenced prior to registration. Thus, Mason argues, section 412 allows him to recover statutory damages and attorney's fees for any infringement that the defendants commenced after he registered the copyrights, even though they commenced other, separate infringements of the same work prior to registration. The district court rejected this argument because it interpreted the term infringement to mean all of a defendant's acts of infringement of any one work. Thus, the court interpreted the words commencement of infringement' to mean the first act of infringement in a series of on-going separate infringements. 741 F.Supp. at 1286. We find section 412 to be ambiguous and open to either interpretation. But we find support for the district court's interpretation in the legislative history of section 412. The House Report explains that clause (2) [of section 412] would generally deny an award of [statutory damages and attorney's fees] where infringement takes place before registration. H.R.REP. No. 1476 at 158, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5659, 5774 (emphasis added). In contrast to the for any infringement language of section 412, this language reveals Congress' intent that statutory damages be denied not only for the particular infringement that a defendant commenced before registration, but for all of that defendant's infringements of a work if one of those infringements commenced prior to registration. In addition to the legislative history of section 412, we find support for the district court's interpretation in 17 U.S.C. § 504. We look to section 504 for assistance in understanding section 412 because section 412 bars an award of statutory damages as provided by section 504. Section 504 provides that: the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $500 or more than $20,000 as the court considers just. 17 U.S.C.A. § 504(c)(1) (West Supp.1992) (emphasis added). Under this section, the total number of awards of statutory damages (each ranging from $500 to $20,000) that a plaintiff may recover in any given action depends on the number of works that are infringed and the number of individually liable infringers, regardless of the number of infringements of those works.11 So if a plaintiff proves that one defendant committed five separate infringements of one copyrighted work, that plaintiff is 11 The legislative history of section 504 is particularly direct on this point: Although ... an award of minimum statutory damages may be multiplied if separate works and separately liable infringers are involved in the suit, a single award ... is to be made for all infringements involved in the action. A single infringer of a single work is liable for a single amount ..., no matter how many acts of infringement are involved in the action and regardless of whether the acts were separate, isolated, or occurred in a related series. .... ... Where the infringements of one work were committed by a single infringer acting individually, a single award of statutory damages would be made.... However, where separate infringements for which two or more defendants are not jointly liable are joined in the same action, separate awards of statutory damages would be appropriate. H.R.REP. No. 1476 at 162, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5659, 5778. As the D.C. Circuit explained, [b]oth the text of [section 504(c)(1) ] and its legislative history make clear that statutory damages are to be calculated according to the number of works infringed, not the number of infringements.... [O]nly one penalty lies for multiple infringements of one work. Walt Disney Co. v. Powell, 897 F.2d 565, 569 (D.C.Cir.1990). entitled to only one award of statutory damages ranging from $500 to $20,000. And if a plaintiff proves that two different defendants each committed five separate infringements of five different works, the plaintiff is entitled to ten awards, not fifty. It would be inconsistent to read section 504 to include all of one defendant's infringements of one work within an award of statutory damages, and then read section 412 to treat each infringement separately for purposes of barring that award. Moreover, section 504 provides that the plaintiff may elect to recover an award of statutory damages for all of one defendant's infringements of any one work instead of actual damages and profits. Thus, if all of one defendant's infringements commenced after registration, the plaintiff may not elect to recover statutory damages for some of those infringements and actual damages for the rest. See H.R.REP. No. 1476 at 161, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5659, 5777 (Recovery of actual damages and profits under section 504(b) or of statutory damages under section 504(c) is alternative.). Under Mason's argument, a plaintiff could recover actual damages for infringements that a defendant commenced before registration, and still recover statutory damages for infringements of the same work that the same defendant commenced after registration. This argument must fail because an award of statutory damages—which section 504 giveth and section 412 taketh away—encompasses all of one defendant's infringements of one work. Finally, our conclusion accords with the purpose of section 412. Congress included section 412 in the Copyright Act of 1976 because [c]o pyright registration for published works, which is useful and important to users and the public at large, would no longer be compulsory [under the 1976 Act], and should therefore be induced in some practical way. H.R.REP. No. 1476 at 158, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5659, 5774. Denying an award of the special or extraordinary' remedies of statutory damages or attorney's fees where ... infringement commenced after publication and before registration encourages early registration of copyrights. Id. As one court has noted, [t]he threat of such a denial would hardly provide a significant motivation to register early if the owner of the work could obtain those remedies for acts of infringement taking place after a belated registration. Singh v. Famous Overseas, Inc., 680 F.Supp. 533, 536 (E.D.N.Y.1988). We thus conclude that a plaintiff may not recover an award of statutory damages and attorney's fees for infringements that commenced after registration if the same defendant commenced an infringement of the same work prior to registration. Mason published his 233 maps between 1967 and 1980, and registered the copyright in one map in October 1968. By the time he registered the remaining 232 copyrights in 1987, t he defendants had reorganized Mason's maps and created and used the overlays and computer database. As to each work and each defendant, the alleged acts of infringement that could give rise to an award of statutory damages had commenced prior to registration of 232 of the works. We thus uphold this ruling of the district court. If Mason proves infringement, he may elect to recover statutory damages and attorney's fees only for the infringements of the map that he registered in 1968.