Thank you so much for your comments. You are correct. If a copyright owner can prove the infringement is willful, the court may, in their discretion, award damages up to $150,000. However it is not a guarantee.

The Copyright statute defines willfulness as: “the infringer had knowledge that the activity (copying) constituted infringement or recklessly disregarded the possibility of infringement.” So placing copyright notices on your works and sending cease and desist letters to infringers puts them on notice of the copyright owner's rights. It is good evidence that copyright infringement is willful.

Thanks again for pointing this out!

Thank you so much for your comments. You are correct. If a copyright owner can prove the infringement is willful, the court may, in their discretion, award damages up to $150,000. However it is not a guarantee.

The Copyright statute defines willfulness as: “the infringer had knowledge that the activity (copying) constituted infringement or recklessly disregarded the possibility of infringement.” So placing copyright notices on your works and sending cease and desist letters to infringers puts them on notice of the copyright owner's rights. It is good evidence that copyright infringement is willful.

Thanks again for pointing this out!

“These damages are between $750-$30,000 per cause of action.”

As you suggested, it is good practice to put copyright notices on your page, because if you're able to prove that the infringement was done wilfully, the statutory damages can actually range to as high as $150,000.

Thanks for commenting. When you register a copyright online, there is a line where the form requests that you supply the copyright information for any portion of your work that is not attributable to you. The copyright office will only attribute copyrights to the original author. Please contact me if you need any additional information.