9th Cir.;
14-56596

The court of appeals reversed a judgment and remanded. The court held that a website's forum moderators could be deemed agents of the website for purposes of determining whether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DCMA) “safe harbor” protected the website from liability for a user's posting of copyrighted material.

Mavrix Photographs sued LiveJournal, Inc. for posting twenty of its copyrighted photographs online. LiveJournal moved for summary judgment, arguing it was immune from liability under 17 U.S.C. §512(c) because the photographs at issue were posted at the direction of its users. Mavrix opposed, arguing that although users submitted Mavrix's photographs to LiveJournal, LiveJournal posted the photographs only after a team of volunteer moderators led by a LiveJournal employee reviewed and approved them.