South Bend, Indiana – Real Clear Holdings LLC (“RCH”), the Defendant, is alleged to have copied Plaintiff Christopher Sadowski’s photograph of Mayor Bill de Blasio (the “Photograph”) without a license or authorization. Sadowski claims to be a professional photographer and owner of U.S. Copyright No. VA 2-175-419 for the Photograph. According to the Complaint, Sadowski licensed the Photograph to the New York Post who posted the Photograph with Sadowski’s name in an article on its website on July 25, 2019.
RCH allegedly took the Photograph from the New York Post’s website and used the Photograph on RCH’s website www.realclearmarkets.com/ in an article posted on September 9, 2019. Sadowski claims RCH did not license the Photograph from him and did not have his permission to utilize the Photograph. He further claims RCH removed the copyright management information identifying Sadowski as the photographer as shown on the New York Post’s website and instead credited “YouTube”. Therefore, he is seeking damages for copyright infringement and removal and alteration of copyright management information.
The case was assigned to District Judge Damon R. Leichty and Magistrate Judge Michael G. Gotsch, Sr. in the Northern District and assigned Case 3:20-cv-00215-DRL-MGG.