Kelly v. Arriba Soft Inc.
United States District Court for the Central District of California
77 F. Supp. 2d 1116 (1999)
Ditto (defendant) operated an image search engine displaying thumbnail results that, when clicked, opened a page showing the full-size photo along with a link to the source website and a notice to check for use restrictions before copying. Ditto's engine indexed 35 of Kelly's (plaintiff) gold-rush-themed photos; after Kelly objected, Ditto removed them, but Kelly still sued for copyright infringement and for removing copyright-management information (CMI) under § 1202(b). Ditto moved for summary judgment.
Whether, to make out a case under 17 U.S.C. § 1202(b)(3), plaintiffs must prove a defendant published copies of a copyrighted work without available copyright-management information and that the defendant knew or should have known publication would lead to infringement.