Background information

Larry Philpot is a freelance photographer who photographed Ted Nugent. Baltimore Post-Examiner is an LLC that operates news websites "BaltimorePostExaminer.com" and "LAPostExaminer.com." Philpot made the photo available through Wikimedia for distribution, public display, and public digital performance under a Creative Commons license, and alleged that Baltimore infirnged his copyright by publishing the photo on its websites without attribution. Baltimore moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction.

Case summary

The court denied the motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The court found that it had specific personal jurisdiction over Baltimore using a three part test. Philpot established that there was purposeful direction and the claims arose out of Baltimore's forum-related activities because Baltimore intentionally published the photo on its websites that were aimed at California residents, and Baltimore did not show that exercising jurisdiction would be unreasonable.