PHILADELPHIA — A man is suing Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company for alleged copyright infringements of his photographs.
Michael Keller filed a lawsuit on March 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, citing violations of the Copyright Act.
According to the complaint, Keller is the owner of copyrights of photographic images that have been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office or have pending copyright registrations. The plaintiff entered into a series of contractual agreements with The Stock Market, a stock-photo licensing agency, between 1988 and 2001, the suit says.
The suit states that The Stock Market sold the defendant limited licenses to use copies of the photographs in numerous educational publications. The plaintiff claims that the defendant printed more copies than authorized in excessive publications in such a way that allegedly constituted a copyright infringement.
Keller seeks a permanent injunction against the defendant from further infringements, impoundment of all violating copies, actual damages, attorneys’ fees, court costs, expert witness fees, and a trial by jury. He is represented by Maurice Harmon of Harmon & Seidman LLC, in New Hope.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case number 2:16-cv-01397-PD