A judge has denied that media companies infringed on a former actor’s copyright ownership in photographs they published following the actor’s 2012 arrest.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled in favor of the 10 media entities in a dispute with Vivek Shah, who alleged the defendants published photos of him posing with celebrities without his consent.
Shah was arrested by the FBI in Schaumburg in 2012 for attempted extortion after allegedly mailing millionaires letters threatening to kill their families if they failed to pay him millions of dollars. Following his arrest, the defendants published articles or news stories about Shah, featuring 20 of the photographs Shah had uploaded to Facebook or IMDb. In September 2013, Shah was sentenced to 87 months imprisonment. Nearly 5-and-a-half years later, he was released from prison and allegedly learned about the defendants’ use of his photographs. By November 2021, he had registered his copyright ownership in the 20 images.
Shah, who represented himself, alleged the defendants did not attribute these photos to him, but instead gave credit to IMDb or Facebook, or failed to provide any credit. Shah also contends he never licensed the photographs to defendants or gave them permission to post them alongside their articles.
The 10 defendants, which include NYP Holdings, Inc., Vox Media, LLC, The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC, CBS Studios, Inc., Inside Edition, Inc., Telepictures Productions, Inc., New York Daily News Company, E! Entertainment Television, LLC, ABC News, Inc., and Fox News Network, LLC, filed a consolidated motion to dismiss, requesting the court dismiss all of Shah’s claims. The judge issued the decision Jan. 18 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
A copyright infringement claim has two elements: ownership of a valid copyright, and copying of constituent elements of the work that are original. Shah said his certificate of registration for the copyrighted photos was evidence he had ownership over a valid copyright and, regardless, that he owned the copyrights as the sole author of the photos. Shah said he would pose himself and a celebrity and hand his phone to a friend or bystander to take the photograph. However, since Shah himself did not capture the photographs, the court said he is not entitled to copyright those photos.
The court also found he failed to allege he was a joint author. While he demonstrated an intention to be an author, he failed to show the intent necessary to establish joint authorship. Shah also contended that ownership of the photographs were transferred to him when the photographer handed him back the camera, but the judge determined simply handing the camera back was not sufficient legal grounds to establish a transfer of ownership.
Shah claimed that five defendants — NYP Holdings, Inc., Associated Newspapers Limited, The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC, Daily News, L.P., and E! Entertainment Television, LLC — violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is a copyright law. But without ownership of the photos, the court said it was unclear how Shah faced any injury as a result of the allegedly improper attribution of the photographs to IMDb or Facebook.
Shah also claimed four of the defendants unlawfully reproduced his photographs and intentionally attributed ownership of the copyrighted images to IMDb and/or Facebook, causing consumer confusion. The court dismissed this claim, stating the allegations mirrored his copyright infringement claim. Shah alleged defendants published false statements about him with the photographs. However, he never explained how these false statements violated state law and instead focused again on copyright issues.
Shah was given 30 days to amend his complaint, but immediately filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Defendants have been represented by attorneys Brendan J. Healey and Sharon R. Albrecht, of Baron Harris Healey, of Chicago; Robert Balin, of Davis Wright Tremaine, of New York; Natalie J. Spears and Leah R. Bruno, of Dentons US LLP, of Chicago; and Todd J. Ohlms, of Proskauer Rose, of Chicago.