Court Orders Internet Company, Owner to Pay Playboy $3.74 Million in Copyright Infringement Suit
PR Newswire - April 02, 1998 10:02
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Landmark victory believed to be the largest Internet-related damages award
CHICAGO, April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal judge in Southern California
has awarded Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PEI) (NYSE: PLAA, PLA) what is believed
to be the largest Internet-related damages award to date, in connection with
the unauthorized use by a commercial Web service of almost 7,500 Playboy-owned
images.
The $3.74 million award, plus attorneys' fees and court costs, was
assessed against San Diego-based Five Senses Productions and its owner,
Francesco Sanfilippo. The judgment is a landmark legal victory for Playboy,
which spends millions of dollars annually on photography and design to produce
the high-quality images that are the hallmark of Playboy magazine and many of
its related products and services. Because of the value associated with its
copyrighted images and trademarks, PEI is particularly aggressive in tracking
and stopping the unauthorized use of its photography and trademarks, on and
off the Web.
This decision is especially notable from a legal standpoint because it
treated each use of the 7,475 Playboy images on Five Senses' Web site as an
individual copyright infringement, rather than limiting the violations to the
number of magazine editions in which the images appeared.
"This judgment is a significant victory in our efforts to combat copyright
infringement on the Internet," said Michelle Kaiser, Intellectual Property
Counsel for PEI.
Five Senses' Web site began operating in May 1996 and includes a
subscription area and a free area, which advertises images accessible on the
subscription portion of the site. Previously included in the subscription
area were thousands of Playboy images scanned from the pages of Playboy
magazine and the company's newsstand specials, and stored in a digital format
easy to post and view on the Web.
After Five Senses ignored numerous warnings from PEI to remove Playboy's
copyrighted images from the site, federal marshals raided Five Senses' San
Diego offices and seized computer hard-drives and CD-ROMS containing Playboy
images. The April 15 raid is believed to have been the first of its kind in
the field of Internet copyright law. A week later, PEI and Sanfilippo agreed
on a preliminary injunction that prevented Five Senses from using Playboy
images until the suit was resolved.
In issuing her order last week on PEI's motion for summary judgment in the
case, U.S. District Court Judge Irma Gonzalez ruled that each of the Playboy
images had an independent economic value and was worthy of protection.
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. is an international multimedia entertainment
company that publishes editions of Playboy magazine in 16 countries; creates
programming for Playboy TV networks and home video distribution around the
world; operates a direct marketing business, including Critics' Choice Video,
Collectors' Choice Music and Playboy catalogs and Web sites; markets
Playboy-branded consumer products sold worldwide; operates Playboy Online,
which includes the Playboy.com and Playboy Cyber Club Web sites; and plans to
open the Playboy Casino & Beach Hotel on the Greek island of Rhodes.
SOURCE Playboy Enterprises, Inc.
/CONTACT: Rebecca Theim of Playboy, 312-751-8000, x2656,
rtheim@playboy.com/
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