An owner of a website sued an owner of another website for using pictures from the website without permission.
The Court held that photos are protected under the Copyright Act. Apart from the commercial rights that a copyright owner holds, the owner is entitled to a personal-moral right to be identified with the creation. In order to determine the extent of compensation the Court may consider, inter alia, the extent of the infringement, the length of time the infringement took place, the severity of the violation, the actual damage caused to the claimant, the gain for the defendant from the infringement, the characteristics of the defendant's activity, the nature of the relationship between the defendant and the claimant and the defendant's good faith.
In the present case the photos were taken by the claimant and are worthy of protection. However, the Court saw as mitigating circumstances the fact that defendant acted quickly to remove the photos from the website shortly after the claimant request and the Court saw the 42 violations committed as one violation, because these violations were homogenous in nature and type. Therefore, the Court set a law compensation of ILS 2500 only.