Photographer to Appeal Copyright Decision Favoring Arribasoft

Photographer to Appeal Copyright Decision Favoring Arribasoft

Huntington Beach, California. Leslie A. Kelly, photographer and publisher, confirmed today that Judge Gary L. Taylor ruled against him in his copyright infringement case against Arriba Soft Corporation, now known as ditto.com, Naperville, IL, in a decision filed on December 15, 1999 (Case SA CV 99-560 GLT (JW) United States District Court, Central District of California, Southern Division). Kelly filed suit on April 6, 1999, alleging copyright infringement by Arriba Softs ArribaVista Image Search Engine when it posted his copyrighted images in its image search engine without permission and without compensation.

According to Kelly, Judge Taylor concluded that "On apparent first impression, the Court holds the use by an Internet visual search engine of others copyrighted images is a prima facie copyright violation, but it may be justified under the fair use doctrine. The Court finds that, under the particular circumstances of this case, the fair use doctrine applies, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is not violated.

In a prepared statement, Kelly stated: "Obviously, I am quite disappointed with Judge Taylors ruling not only against me in my specific case but against all creative artists, graphic designers, illustrators and photographers. Arriba Soft Corporation took more than two million images from web sites worldwide, without permission and without payment, in a commercial enterprise to sell its software and used these images to form the core database to operate its own Internet business. In July 1999, Arriba Soft changed its company name to ditto.com but maintained the same image database. In September 1999, executives of ditto.com were quoted in press stories that they anticipated achieving annual revenues of $100 million based on their use of these images.

"Because protection of intellectual property on the Internet is too important to let this decision go unchallenged, in the next few weeks, I will begin review of potential law firms to manage an appeal as well as seek additional support from groups adversely impacted by this decision.

"To determine that Arriba Softs use of my work without permission was just a small portion of their overall business and so therefore constitutes fair use (or free use) clearly sends the wrong message to artists who hope to use the Internet as an important new market for their services. The Internet is huge and its potential is awesome. However, with the word free used by so many companies on the Internet to market their services, there is serious concern that this decision, left unchallenged, will add to the already widespread and unfortunate belief that anything and everything on the Internet is free for the taking.

"I wish to thank all of my fellow members and the leadership of Graphic Artists Guild for their past and continuing financial support in this case."