Murphy v. Millennium Radio Group LLC

650 F.3d 295 (3rd Cir. 2011)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

P was hired to take a photo of Craig Carton and Ray Rossi, who at the time were the hosts of a show on the New Jersey radio station WKXW, which is owned by Millennium Radio Group. A magazine used the photo to illustrate an article in its 'Best of New Jersey' issue naming Carton and Rossi 'best shock jocks' in the state. The photo showed Carton and Rossi standing, apparently nude, behind a WKXW sign. P retained the copyright to the Image. An 'unknown' employee of WKXW scanned the Image and posted it to the WKXW website and to another website, myspacetv.com. The scanned image cut off part of the original magazine caption referring to the 'Best of New Jersey' award. It also eliminated the gutter credit (that is, a credit placed in the inner margin, or 'gutter,' of a magazine page, ordinarily printed in a smaller type and running perpendicular to the relevant image on the page) identifying P as the author of the Image. The website invited visitors to alter the Image using photo-manipulation software and submit the resulting versions to WKXW. WKXW posted 26 of those submissions to its site. D never received P's permission to make use of the Image. P demanded that the infringement cease. P sued Ds for violations of §1202 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), copyright infringement, and defamation under New Jersey law. Ds eventually filed a motion for summary judgment on all claims. The court granted Ds' motion for summary judgment on all counts. P appealed. P claims that, by reproducing the Image without the credit identifying him as the author, Ds violated §1202 of the DMCA.