## Facts

- Los Angeles News Service (LANS) recorded and copyrighted helicopter video footage of widely reported attacks during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, including the beating of Reginald Denny.
- LANS licensed the footage for broadcast, including to NBC for use on the *Today Show*.
- NBC transmitted the broadcast containing LANS’s clips from the United States to Visnews in New York under a news-supply agreement.
- Visnews made a videotape copy in New York and transmitted the material to foreign recipients by satellite and by fiber link, including to the European Broadcast Union (EBU) in New York.
- EBU made another videotape copy and sent it to Reuters in London, which distributed the footage to subscribers outside the United States.
- LANS sued Reuters and Visnews for copyright infringement based on the copying and downstream distribution, including foreign transmissions and uses.

## Issues

1. Whether a copyright owner may recover damages for foreign exploitation of a work when that exploitation is causally linked to a completed act of infringement within the United States.
2. Whether recoverable “actual damages” under 17 U.S.C. § 504(b) for such foreign exploitation are limited to the infringer’s profits/unjust enrichment, or may also include the owner’s own losses (e.g., lost licensing fees).

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s limitation of relief to statutory damages and remanded.
- The court held that, once a completed domestic act of infringement is shown, § 504(b) permits recovery of damages stemming from foreign exploitation that is predicated on that domestic infringement.
- The court rejected the district court’s view that foreign-related recovery is confined to the “profits” component of § 504(b), rather than the “actual damages” component.
- The court required conventional proof on remand, including causation linking the foreign exploitation to the domestic infringement and evidence quantifying the owner’s losses.

## Legal Principles

- The Copyright Act does not create liability for wholly foreign acts, but damages may include foreign-market harm that flows from a completed act of infringement in the United States.
- Under 17 U.S.C. § 504(b), “actual damages” and “profits of the infringer” are distinct remedies; foreign consequences of a domestic infringement are not categorically restricted to the profits remedy.
- A plaintiff seeking recovery for foreign exploitation tied to domestic infringement must prove causation (that the foreign uses resulted from the domestic infringing act) and the amount of loss (such as lost licensing revenue).

## Conclusion

A copyright owner may pursue § 504(b) actual damages for foreign exploitation when that exploitation is causally traceable to a completed infringing act within the United States, and such recovery is not limited to the infringer’s profits.


Los Angeles News Serv. v. Reuters Television Int'l, Ltd., 340 F.3d 926 (9th Cir. 2003)