Opinion
Civil Action 1:21-cv-563
05-26-2022
JEREMY NICHOLL, Plaintiff, v. SECURITY STUDIES GROUP, Defendant.
ORDER
HONORABLE T.S. ELLIS III SENIOR UNITED STATCS DISTRICT JUDGE
On March 25, 2022, United States Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson entered the Proposed Findings of Fact and Recommendation (the “Report”) in this case, recommending that default judgment be entered in favor of Plaintiff Jeremy Nicholl and against Defendant Security Studies Group. Plaintiff is a documentary photographer and defendant is an online journalism website that publishes information relating to national security issues. At some point, defendant used one of plaintiff's copyrighted works on its website as a preview for an article and as the header at the top of the article without permission. Plaintiff notified defendant of its alleged infringement by email and served a copy of the complaint on defendant's registered agent.
Upon consideration of the record and Judge Anderson's Report, to which no objections have been filed, and having found no clear error,
See Diamond v. Colonial Life & Acc. Ins. Co., 416 F.3d 310, 315 (4th Cir. 2005) (in the absence of any objections to a magistrate's report, the court “need not conduct a de novo review, but instead must ‘only satisfy itself that there is no clear error on the face of the record in order to accept the recommendation.'”).
The Court ADOPTS, as its own, the findings of fact and recommendations of the United States Magistrate Judge, as set forth in the Report (Dkt. 14).
Accordingly, It is hereby ORDERED that plaintiff's motion for default judgment (Dkt. 8) is GRANTED.
It is further ORDERED that DEFAULT JUDGMENT be entered in favor of Plaintiff and against Defendant.
It is further ORDERED that default judgment is entered against Defendant and in favor of Plaintiff in an amount of $25,463.29, which consists of (i) $19,215 in statutory damages; and (ii) $6,248.29 in attorney's fees and costs.
It is further ORDERED that defendant is PERMANENTLY ENJOINED from using the copyrighted work at issue in this case. Namely, defendant is enjoined from using a photograph entitled “ru135302.jpg, ” which was copyrighted on December 21, 2012 with the Registration Number VA 1-849-083.
The Clerk of the Court is directed to enter Rule 58 judgment against Defendant and in favor of Plaintiff in an amount of $25,463.29, which consists of (i) $19,215 in statutory damages; and (ii) $6,248.29 in attorney's fees and costs.
The Clerk is further directed to provide a copy of this Order to all counsel of record, to Defendant's last known addresses of record, and to place this matter among the ended causes.