Prepared Food Photos, Inc. v. Chicken Joes, LLC
- Clarke
- 1:23-cv-03895
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Prepared Food Photos v. Chicken Joes: Judge Clarke entered default judgment, awarding $27,336.32 and permanently enjoining copyright infringement.
Prepared Food Photos, Inc. received a final default judgment, monetary award, and permanent injunction against Chicken Joes, LLC, which was barred from infringing conduct.
What happened
In Prepared Food Photos, Inc. v. Chicken Joes, LLC, the plaintiff sought default judgment after the defendant did not object to a magistrate judge’s recommended decision. The dispute involved the defendant’s retweet of the plaintiff’s copyrighted photograph on Twitter.
The court addressed whether reposting or embedding a copyrighted image on social media can count as displaying the work under the Copyright Act. It concluded that the defendant’s retweet showed a copy of the photograph and therefore constituted an actionable display.
Judge Jessica G. L. Clarke adopted the magistrate judge’s Report and Recommendation in its entirety. The court entered final default judgment, awarded the plaintiff $27,336.32—including statutory damages, costs, and attorney’s fees—and permanently barred the defendant from infringing conduct.
The detailed version
- Prepared Food Photos, Inc. v. Chicken Joes, LLC · No. 1:23-cv-03895
- Clarke
- Feb. 1, 2024
Background
Prepared Food Photos, Inc. moved for default judgment against Chicken Joes, LLC. The motion had been referred to Magistrate Judge Willis, who recommended that it be granted in part in a Report and Recommendation filed January 12, 2024.
The Report and Recommendation gave the parties fourteen days to object and warned that failing to object would waive the right to object. No objections or requests for an extension were filed. The district court therefore concluded that the parties had waived objections and appellate review. Even so, the court reviewed the petition and the Report and Recommendation and found the recommendation well reasoned and supported by the facts and law.
Copyright Issue
The case concerned whether a repost of a copyrighted image on social media—in this case, a retweet on Chicken Joes’s Twitter page—constituted a copyright-protected display. The court noted that the Second Circuit had not squarely decided when internet reposts infringe display or distribution rights.
The court joined other courts in the Southern District of New York in concluding that embedding an image constitutes displaying the work under the Copyright Act. For the reasons stated in the Report and Recommendation, the court held that Chicken Joes’s retweet of Prepared Food Photos’s copyrighted photograph showed a copy and therefore constituted a display under 17 U.S.C. § 101.
Ruling
The court adopted the Report and Recommendation in its entirety and entered a final default judgment against Chicken Joes. The award totaled $27,336.32, consisting of $23,976.00 in statutory damages, $500.32 in reimbursed costs, and $2,860 in attorney’s fees.
The court also granted Prepared Food Photos a permanent injunction barring Chicken Joes from infringing conduct. The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate the relevant motion and close the case. Judge Jessica G. L. Clarke signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.