When Can You Be Sued For Introducing Copyrighted Works At Trial? Almost Never, But Plaintiffs Keep Trying

Professor Nimmer once identified the "weakest infringement claims of all time" as those involving attempts by copyright holders to prevent their copyrighted work from being used as evidence against them in court. "It seems inconceivable," Professor Nimmer wrote, "that any court would hold such reproduction to constitute infringement either by the government or by the individual parties responsible for offering the work in evidence." But this scholarly warning has not prevented many plaintiffs from trying — and failing — to use copyright law to keep evidence out of civil and criminal trials, or to punish the parties who introduced the evidence.

Denison v. Illinois Discipline Commission