Court Upholds $20 Million Copyright Suit Against Legg Mason

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 17, 2004 - 8:51am.

Baltimore -- A federal district judge in Baltimore has upheld one of the highest copyright infringement verdicts in history, awarding nearly $20 million to Lowry's Reports Inc., the publisher of a newsletter covering stock market conditions. A jury last October found that Baltimore-based financial services firm Legg Mason infringed upon 240 copyrights by posting the newsletter on its intranet, making it available to its brokers nationwide. The award includes $18.9 million in statutory damages plus $825,000 for breach of contract. In its Feb.11 decision, the court rejected Legg Mason's claim that the damages were "grossly excessive," calling them "a deterrent."
http://www.wrf.com/publications/news.asp?id=1623372132004