Script Writer Keeps Fees in Another Copyright Win Over Director

A script writer rightly won attorneys’ fees after thwarting a “meritless” photo copyright lawsuit from a production company that was deemed retaliatory, the Second Circuit said Tuesday.

Edwyna Brooks succeeded in her suit for a declaration that she fully owned the 2016 short film “Mafietta” and also prevailed over production company Poppington LLC’s claims she ripped off its photographer for a book cover. The district court sufficiently justified a roughly $45,000 attorneys’ fees award in the photo case when it determined Poppington’s claims were “frivolous and unreasonable,” the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said in a Tuesday ...