Prepared Foods Photos Inc. v. Shadowbook Farm LLC

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiff Prepared Food Photos, Inc. f/k/a Adlife Marketing & Communications Co., Inc. (“Plaintiff”) has brought this action for alleged copyright infringement against defendant Shadowbrook Farm LLC (“Defendant”) on June 3, 2022. Dkt. No. 1 (“Complaint”). After Defendant failed to answer, Plaintiff filed a request for entry of default on August 31, 2022. Dkt. No. 7. The Clerk executed a certificate of default on September 1, 2022. Dkt. No. 8. Presently before the Court is Plaintiff’s motion for default judgment, filed on November 29, 2022. Dkt. No. 14 (“Motion”). For the reasons that follow, Plaintiff’s Motion is granted. II. BACKGROUND Plaintiff is a company that licenses professional photographs for the food industry. Compl. 6. Plaintiff operates a subscription service whereby subscribers pay a monthly fee of $999.00 to gain access to tens of thousands of food industry-related photographs. Id.

7-8. Subscribers cannot license or purchase individual photographs; instead, subscribers may only gain access to these photographs by paying Plaintiff’s monthly fee. Id. 9. Plaintiff requires that subscribers commit to a minimum 12-month subscription. Mot. at 2. In other words, a subscriber must pay a minimum of $11,988.00 (12 months of access at $999.00 per month) to use Plaintiff’s service. Id. Once the customer pays the subscription fee, the customer receives a “limited, nontransferable license for use of any photograph by the customer only.” Id. at 3. The license terms make clear, however, that Plaintiff retains its copyright ownership of all images and “that its customers are not permitted to transfer, assign, or sub-license any of Plaintiff’s photographs to another person/entity.” Id. Defendant is a farm and online store that sells meat and other products. Compl. 14. According to the Complaint, Defendant is not, and has never been, one of Plaintiff’s customers. Id. at 17. Defendant has never subscribed to Plaintiff’s service, nor has Defendant paid the $999.00 monthly fee to Plaintiff, nor has Defendant ever contacted Plaintiff to seek permission to use any of Plaintiff’s images. Id. Nevertheless, Defendant published one of Plaintiff’s copyrighted photographs — an image titled “ChuckSteakRawFSHC1403.jpg” (the “Work”) — on Defendant’s website. Id.