Background information

Larry Philpot is a photographer who took a photo of Willie Nelson and published it on Wikimedia under a Creative Commons license, which requires a licensee of the photo to reference the license and provide a specific photographer attribution. Philpot claims that Rural Media published the photo on its website, myruralty.com, and took it down after Philpot sent a cease and desist letter. Philpot then brought this suit for copyright infringement. Rural moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(2) for lack of personal jurisdiction.

Case summary

The court held that there was no specific personal jurisdiction because there was no evidence that the infringing acts were committed intentionally, and no evidence of harm to Philpot in Indiana, and the court similarly held that there were not sufficient contacts with Indiana to establish general personal jurisdiction.