Douglas v. Cunningham

Background

A writer named Douglas created an original story that was copyrighted and published by The American Mercury, which assigned the copyright to Douglas. Another writer, Cunningham, supplied an article to the Boston Post that plainly copied Douglas’s story, and the Post printed about 384,000 copies. Douglas and his assignee sued for copyright infringement seeking an injunction, an accounting, profits, and damages, including statutory damages in lieu of actual damages. At trial the defendants acted innocently and the plaintiffs could not prove actual monetary loss, but the trial judge awarded $5,000 in statutory damages and a counsel fee. The Circuit Court of Appeals reduced that award to $250, finding the trial judge had abused his discretion.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether an appellate court may overturn a trial judge’s discretionary award of statutory damages when the award falls within the limits set by the copyright statute. The statute allows a judge, when actual damages or profits are hard to prove, to use a per‑copy measure of damages and to award between $250 and $5,000, not as a penalty but as just compensation. Relying on the statute’s language and earlier decisions, the Court said the choice to apply the statutory per‑copy measure within those limits is committed to the trial judge’s discretion. When a trial judge uses that statutory yardstick within the $250–$5,000 range, an appellate court should not overturn the award as an abuse of discretion.

Real world impact

The decision leaves trial judges with authority to set statutory damages in infringement cases where actual loss is unclear, making statutory awards more secure against reversal. That affects writers, publishers, and lower courts in future disputes over reproduced newspaper or magazine material.