IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT—C.D. Cal.: AirBNB’s photo caching service may mean cash in hand for photographer, (Oct 18, 2022)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

The real estate giant allegedly took copyrighted photos down from listings, but left them up on its photo caching platform.

AirBNB is liable for direct and secondary copyright infringement for photos that were taken down from listings but nonetheless remained visible on a photo caching platform associated with the company, a new complaint alleges. The complaint, filed in the federal court for the Central District of California by a Greek citizen and photographer, alleges that the home-rental giant is also liable under the DMCA for removing the photographer’s name and other identifying information from the nearly two dozen photographs (Ayiomamitis v. Airbnb, Inc., October 10, 2022,.

The lawsuit centers on 22 photographs taken by Anthony Ayiomamitis, a resident of Athens, Greece. His website appears to largely focus on astrophotography, particularly photos of various astronomical effects that he takes with research-grade telescopes. Ayiomamitis’s more popular images, however, are of various astronomical effects backgrounded against traditional Greek landmarks, such as the Twin Towers at Mytikasm, the Battle of Salamis statue, and—of course—the Acropolis.

According to the complaint, various AirBNB users took these 22 photos and used them to adorn their listings—removing his name and related metadata from the images in the process. For the most part, the lawsuit alleges, AirBNB responded to his complaints by taking down the photos from the listings themselves. However, the complaint alleges, the photos remain visible at various links with the URL of ao.muscache.com—a webpage somewhat sparsely described in the complaint as “AIRBNB’s only source for images.” (Readers wanting to know more about this server—apparently used in connection with the Akamai platform to serve and cache AirBNB images—may find this seven-year-old analysis on Medium.com helpful.).

The lawsuit alleges that AirBNB is liable for direct infringement as well as secondarily liable for the infringing actions of its users. The lawsuit also alleges that AirBNB violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, for the removal of copyright management information from his photographs. The complaint seeks damages (in the form of infringers profits or statutory damages, upon election) as well as injunctive relief, costs, and reasonable attorney fees.

The Case is No. 2:22-cv-07349.

Attorneys: Scott Alan Burroughs (Doniger / Burroughs PC) for Anthony Ayiomamitis.

Companies: Airbnb, Inc.

News: Copyright TechnologyInternet CaliforniaNews