Davis V. Pinterest, Inc.: The Road Map To Contributory Infringement Suits

Published date03 August 2021
Subject MatterIntellectual Property, Copyright
Law FirmKhurana and Khurana
AuthorRicha Bhandari

"The one who distributes, with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties."

The concept of contributory copyright infringement thus stems from the law of torts which basically purports that a person who contributes directly to the infringement of another person should be held accountable. It is a legal tool that has been developed to address the shortcomings of the Legislature. The purpose of contributory copyright liability is to 'empower copyright owners to sue the root cause of numerous infringements,' rather than having to sue a 'multitude of individuals' for direct infringements.

Now, the question which arises is why in the instant case of Pinterest, one of the most popular online platforms to create their virtual "boards" by using pins, opens a door to a number of contributory infringement suits? The case dates back to November 2019 when Harold Davis, a Digital Artist and Photographer and the Plaintiff in the instant case, alleged that the defendant had "deliberately removed indicia of copyright ownership in order to render its paid advertisement more effective and to actively thwart the efforts of copyright owners, like Plaintiff, to police the misuse of their works on and through Pinterest's website and app." However, despite a clear case of contributory copyright infringement, the Court ruled otherwise, which is nothing but a road map to future infringement suits!

The plaintiff had alleged that the defendant "does not have in place a system of screening the Pins for copyright notices or other indicia of copyright ownership associated with the 'pinned' images" and that the defendant monetizes those images . . . by displaying and distributing those images to its users, which are incorporated with targeted advertisement." Apart from this, the defendant also "makes downloading an image exceedingly easy" for its users, and provides users with a mechanism to "display the same image on the user's web page".

In this regard, Defendant moved to the Court with the aim to dismiss the infringement claim of Plaintiff on the ground that in order to prove a case of contributory copyright infringement, it must be established that the copyright of Plaintiff was in the actual knowledge of Pinterest.

The Threshold Requirement

The concept of contributory copyright infringement has been developed by the...

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