If you found out that your residential tenant had used your vacation home to shoot 9 pornographic movies, your first thought would be to sue for breach of lease, not copyright infringement. Yet, that is exactly the case that is playing out in a Federal District Court in Massachusetts. For, unbeknownst to the production company, the artwork on the walls of the home were created by the owner of the house, and are highly visible in the resulting movies. Nova Southeastern University's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., details the facts and law surrounding this unusual case, and shows how once again, a simple permission request would have saved a lot of money.
