IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT—W.D. Tex.: Chasing storms or chasing a copyright litigation payday?, (Nov 22, 2024)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

A professional videographer and frequent copyright litigant will get to do both.

A videographer, storm chaser and frequent nemesis of copyright infringers was entitled to move forward with his lawsuit against a talk radio show that allegedly infringed on one of his videos by posting portions of it on its Facebook page, the federal court for San Antonio, Texas has held. But the court, in allowing the lawsuit against the talk show to proceed to the merits stage, found that it did not have personal jurisdiction against the New York-based media company that allegedly managed the talk radio show’s website (Global Weather Productions, LLC v. Joe Pags Media, LLC, No. 5:23-cv-01350-JKP-ESC (W.D. Tex. Nov. 20, 2024)).

The lawsuit was brought by Brandon Clement, a professional storm chaser whose work can be seen on WxChasing and others. Clement is known in the copyright world for his frequent tangles with those who pirate his work. In the last two years, docket records show, Clement or the company he founded, Global Weather Productions, have filed dozens of copyright infringement lawsuits. (IP Law Daily covered one of those, a complaint against Reuters, last month).

The action at issue here takes aim at the Joe Pags Show, a San Antonio, Texas-based talk radio channel that is broadcast through affiliates nationwide. The complaint alleges that the radio show purloined 59 seconds of one of Clement’s videos—featuring a flash-flooding event and rescue in Dallas in August 2022—and posted it on the show’s Facebook page. The copyright infringement lawsuit takes aim at the radio show as well as its contracted media consulting firm, M3 Media.

The two defendants moved to dismiss the complaint, leading to this lawsuit.

Personal jurisdiction. The court found that it did not have personal jurisdiction over the media consulting firm. The firm was located in New York and had no physical presence in Texas, the court noted. Moreover, the court found, the alleged act of infringement did not arise out of any of the media company’s activities directed at Texas. The media company had a contract with the Joe Pags show that required it to host the show’s website and to manage the show’s website and digital branding, the court noted. However, the contract covered only the show and its website, the court noted, but not the show’s Facebook page. Thus, the alleged infringement could not have arisen out of the contract—and thus, there could be no personal jurisdiction over the media company.

Validity of copyright infringement claim. The court also found that the storm chaser had alleged a valid copyright claim. The show argued that it was the media company, and not the show, that actually posted the content on the Facebook page. But “[t]his argument must fail, as it is not proper subject of a Federal Rule 12(b)(6) motion,” the court found. “Assessment of Global Weather Productions’s cause of action at this stage focuses not on whether it will ultimately prevail, but whether it is entitled to offer evidence to support the copyright infringement cause of action.” The same reasoning applied to the storm chaser’s claims of contributory and vicarious liability, which also would proceed to the merits stage.

The Case is No. 5:23-cv-01350-JKP-ESC.

Judge: Pulliam, J.

Attorneys: James H. Freeman (Sanders Law Group) for Global Weather Productions, LLC. Andrew D. Lockton (McHale & Slavin, P.A.) for Joe Pags Media, LLC.

Companies: Global Weather Productions, LLC; Joe Pags Media, LLC; McLaughlin Media Management LLC

Cases: Copyright TexasNews