Rise of the Copyleft Trolls: When Photographers Sue After Creative Commons Licenses Go Awry

Citation: Daxton Stewart (2021) Rise of the Copyleft Trolls: When Photographers Sue After Creative Commons Licenses Go Awry.
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Rise of the Copyleft Trolls: When Photographers Sue After Creative Commons Licenses Go Awry
Wikidata (metadata): Q108043862
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Summary

Analyzes more than 30 cases in which a photographer sued after a CC license terminated. Defendants have had some success in court with fair use, arguing their uses are for transformative purposes, and lack of evidence of economic harm. Courts have resisted encouraging copyright trolls, e.g., by not often granting fees. However, courts have also been hesitant to dismiss cases.

Ends with suggestions, including that courts could determine as a matter of law "that noncommercial uses are both transformative and cause no harm to the market when authors employ copyleft-style licenses, especially when they allow no opportunity to cure the license defect as a CC 4.0 license would require", and that the new Copyright Claims Board established by the CASE Act should be mindful of trolls.