IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Magazine Publisher Seeks High Court Review of Infringement Verdict and Profits Award for Publishing Nude Photo of News Anchor, (Nov 19, 2012)

By William Zale, J.D.

Hustler Magazine publisher LFP, Inc. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the publication of a copyrighted photograph covered in the national media was a fair use and whether the recovery of a profits award required proof of a causal connection between the infringement and LFP’s profits from the magazine issue. The petition for certiorari in LFP, Inc. v. Balsley, Dkt. 12-598, was filed November 5.

At issue is Balsley v. LFP, Inc., 691 F.3d 747, 2012 Copyright Law Decisions ¶30,302 (6^th Cir. 2012), in which the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a jury’s determination that LFP was liable for copyright infringement for publishing photographs of television news anchor Catherine Balsley (aka Catherine Bosley) from a “wet t-shirt contest” without her permission or the permission of the photos’ other copyright owner, Bosley’s husband, Richard Brown. The appeals court also held that the jury reasonably determined that LFP, Inc. was liable for a profits award of $135,000—8.5% of the over $1 million that LFP made from the February 2006 issue of Hustler.

Paul J. Cambria (Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria, LLP) for LFP, Inc.

News: Copyright