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Supreme Court: There's No 'Time Limit' on Copyright Infringement Claims * TorrentFreak
(torrentfreak.com)
Copyright holders can claim damages for copyright infringements that occurred years or even decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court has clarified. In a majority decision, the Court rejected the lower court's argument that there's a three-year time limit for damages. Older claims are fair game, as long as the lawsuit is filed within three years of 'discovering' an infringement.
A copy of the Supreme Court Decision, written by Justice Elena Kagan, is available here
The headline is misleading, but the article reports it correctly.
In copyright law in the US, there is a 3-year statute of limitations. However, some jurisdictions follow the "discovery rule." This is a court-made doctrine that allows a lawsuit to be filed beyond 3 years if the plaintiff can show they only discovered the infringement after the statute of limitations ran out, with some other extenuating factors. However, there is also the issue of damages. Under a sister legal doctrine, damages that are more than 3 years old have been barred regardless of whether the discovery rule allows a lawsuit. Effectively negating the discovery rule.
The Supreme Court in this situation held that damages follow the discovery rule. Meaning, if the discovery rule applies, then damages can be sought. The Court explicitly said it wasn't ruling on whether the discovery rule applied.
The decision doesn't expand or create the discovery rule that allows lawsuits beyond 3 years. That already existed.
Interestingly, this is a rare time when I agree with Gorsuch on the dissent. He basically said, "The damages is moot because the discovery rule is made up and shouldn't even apply, so the majority is wasting its time even entertaining that damages can be sought."