Playboy prevails in copyright case

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August 1, 1995

The judgment in a copyright infringement case between Playboy Enterprises Inc. and Starware Publishing Corp. shows that no matter how much changes in the information age, copyright law stays much the same. And Playboys victory leaves the Chicago-based publisher $1.1 million richer. The suit revolved around Starware's downloading of 53 Playboy images onto a CD-ROM that the Deerfield, Florida-based company later sold.

Playboy took Starware to court for copyright infringement and trademark claims. Starware thought the images were in the public domain when they downloaded them from a BBS or another CD-ROM. The Southern District court awarded Playboy $20,000 for each image and $50,000 for trademark violation. New York City-based attorney David Korzenik says the case shows that standard copyright principles apply to new media. "These cases remind people [that the law] works the way everybody thought it would," he says.