One of the biggest cases of 2019 was one nobody expected: the March indictment of dozens of parents and university coaches for their parts in a national scheme to trick colleges into admitting students on false pretenses.

 

See Press Release:  Phillips Nizer launches College and University Integrity Initiative: Ilene Jaroslaw and Bradley Simon, two veteran federal prosecutors, to assist universities and administrators in confronting and resolving admissions investigation issues (March 20, 2019)

This Alert highlights a recent Third Circuit decision holding that the removal of a photographer's name from a photograph violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). As interpreted by the court, the photographer's name on a physical copy of the photograph was protected "copyright management information" and its removal was a statutory violation even though the name was not part of an automated or electronic copyright management protection system. This decision is particularly important since many unsuspecting business owners and executives, company employees (such as in-house designers) or third-party contractors who may use photographic images readily available in print and on the Web for promotional purposes, may be violating the DMCA and the copyright law. These violations can be costly as both statutes provide for damages even if there is no actual injury or profit.