Granger v. One Call Lender Services

The award of statutory damages is appropriate in the default judgment context, but a single infringer of a single work is only liable for a single amount regardless of the number of infringement acts.

Opinion (Tucker): John Allan Granger (Granger) received default judgment against One Call Lender Service (One Call) for copyright infringement, circumvention of copyright protection systems, integrity of copyright information, and unfair competition. Granger then sought a determination of damages and permanent injunctive relief against One Call. Granger had created, authored and registered with the copyright office a computer program that estimated the rate or cost of real estate insurance. One Call had an infringing version of Granger’s calculator on their website, as well as other infringing derivative works that were substantially derived from Granger’s calculator. One Call removed the infringing material after Granger sent a letter with a licensing agreement to legally use the calculator. The Court found that statutory damages were appropriate in the default judgment context; however, denied Granger’s claim that each derivative work constituted separate works, since a single infringer of a single work is only liable for a single amount regardless of the number of infringement acts. The Court also denied Granger’s request for damages for unfair competition, stating that the award would be duplicative of the Copyright Act’s award. The Court also denied award for circumvention of copy protection systems since the embedded copyright did not meet the definition of circumvention under the code. Lastly, the Court denied the permanent injunction, since Granger did not demonstrate future harm where relief was necessary to prevent prospective injury. Court GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.