Melissa Scott v Timothy Briggs

Melissa Scott has filed a Motion for Default Judgment against Timothy Briggs. According to the filings, Scott has decided to take Briggs’ default after settlement discussions failed. Scott is seeking the statutory damages for the infringements, which is $150,000 for each work. The complaint alleges 125 works were infringed, entitling Scott to $18,750,000, plus attorney’s fees and costs of $31,767.93.

Because Briggs failed to file a timely Answer to Scott’s Complaint, he has not appeared in the action. At this stage, Briggs has forfeited his right to be heard in court. Therefore, Scott can ask for any damages and there is no opposition. This is a bad position to be in for Briggs. This is why you always want to appear in the action and be heard. At least you can make your arguments against the opposing party, even if you are unsuccessful. But now Briggs is liable, even if he had a valid defense against the infringement cause of action. It’s too late for any defenses, all Briggs can do is wait for the court to issue its order.

In the filings, Scott also asks the court to issue a permanent injunction to prevent Briggs from future infringement on the copyrighted works of Dr. Gene Scott. In addition to an order for Briggs to preserve all copies of the works that Briggs has downloaded onto hard drive or server or any other devices. This is where default gets dicey for Briggs: the judge, in his own discretion, may or may not award the full amount of damages or attorney’s fees, but I believe the judge will grant the injunction. That leaves me to question the integrity of Briggs. Did he preserve all the evidence? This is unknown but there are restraining orders that follow the complaint which specifically prohibit destroying any evidence. Since he never appeared in the action, we don’t know what he may have done. Would he delete all the evidence, to cover his tracks? If so, this action is far from over.

If the judge grants the injunction and orders Briggs to preserve all evidence, but Briggs has already deleted the evidence, he could be held in contempt of court. Now the question is, how will the judge decide to proceed for a violation of a court order? He could fine Briggs $1,000.00 per contempt charge, this could mean 125 counts of contempt. Imagine if Briggs were to get slapped with a $18,750,000 judgment for copyright infringement, then a $31,767 attorney’s fee. Now imagine if Briggs were to disobey the court’s order or has already deleted evidence and the court found him in contempt 125 times, costing him an additional $125,000, the latter is owed to the federal government, and therefore cannot be discharged by any means. This isn’t a prediction, just a review of the dangers of failing to appear in an action.

What causes a person to act this way, to blow off responsibility? This is real life, with real consequences and it appears that Briggs is acting like nothing is happening. He didn’t file a response, or a motion to dismiss, or negotiate a settlement. If you know that you’re on the losing end, either you have no money, or you don’t have the time to fight the legal battle. But if you have been sued for copyright infringement and you can’t answer, you make every attempt to negotiate and make things right. According to the Declaration of Kevin J Leichter, it seems that Briggs entered into settlement discussions but allowed the discussions to break down at the end of May. This is counterintuitive to a person who has not filed an answer and has already had a notice of entry of default taken. I can only assume that this is willful and blatant, and Briggs seems to think that there will be no consequences for his actions. This cannot be further from the truth and he will find out the extent of the consequences very soon.

All of the filings mentioned in this report are available for download at Pacer.gov.

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