Milton, FL resident Thomas Patrick Nolan agreed this month to pay $125,000 to settle claims arising from his alleged infringement of materials for the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Gaming company Wizards of the Coast sued Nolan in Washington federal court after Wizards allegedly found a copy of its new “Player’s Handbook 2″ manual on Nolan’s page at document-sharing website Scribd.com.
According to the complaint, a watermark alerted Wizards that Nolan had not purchased the copy of the Handbook that appeared on Nolan’s Scribd page. Wizards stated that more than 1,000 users downloaded illegal copies of the Handbook from Nolan.
Aside from the entertaining description of D&D in the complaint, the most interesting aspect of this case is the $125,000 damages figure. It is difficult to say whether $125,000 is a good deal for Nolan, given the curious state of damages awards under federal copyright laws. Typically, a copyright holder chooses at the outset to seek either actual damages (i.e. the amount of money they lost) or statutory damages (a fixed level of damages per infringement). Wizards asked for both in its complaint, so we don’t know which it actually would have pursued.
On the one hand, the Handbook sells for roughly $25. Even if we assume Nolan would have been found liable for either the approximately 1000 downloaders or 1,600 viewers of the document, that would result in a maximum of $50,000-$80,000 in actual damages suffered by Wizards. Adding the likely substantial attorney’s fee bill Nolan would face if he went to trial might get the total figure near $125,00o — but it certainly wouldn’t make it a bargain.
On the other hand, Wizards might have succeeded in winning statutory damages at trial. Statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. 504(c) can be any number between $200 and $150,000 per infringement, depending on a variety of factors. In that case, Nolan could have lost a judgment as high as $150,000 for just his alleged posting of the Handbook to his Scribd page. If he were on the hook for the 1,000+ downloaders and viewers, he could have faced a multi-million dollar verdict.
