SACRAMENTO – A commercial photographer claims a website used his photograph without consent.
Todd Sipes filed a complaint on March 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against Premier Mortgage Resources LLC and Paul Tollefson alleging copyright infringement.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff created the photograph titled "Sky Painting" in 2011 in Marin Headlands and registered the photograph in 2014 with the U.S. Copyright Office.
He alleges that on June 1, 2016, his photograph was copied and posted by the defendants on their commercial website as a full-page banner image directly below the navigation information on its URL.
The plaintiff holds Premier Mortgage Resources LLC and Tollefson responsible because the defendants allegedly without the permission or consent copied and displayed the plaintiff's copyrighted photograph on its commercial website.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks award of actual or statutory damages, costs, attorneys' fees, disbursements, and such other and further relief as just and just and proper. He is represented by Randall S. Farrimond of Farrimond Law Offices in San Francisco.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California case number 2:18-cv-00700-TLN-KJN