Copyright statutory damages are $750 to $30,000 per work infringed. A court may raise the award to $150,000 per work for willful infringement or lower it to $200 for an innocent infringer, but only if the work was registered in time. This copyright statutory damages calculator checks the registration timing rule in 17 U.S.C. 412, including the 3-month grace period after publication. It then shows the range for your number of works and the lower limits that apply at the Copyright Claims Board.
Statutory damages let a copyright owner recover without proving actual losses, so they are central to valuing photo, music and software infringement claims. The amount is set per work, not per copy: a website that copied the same photo 50 times still faces one award for that photo.
Leave blank if not registered.
| Type of infringement | Per work | Who must prove it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary | $750 to $30,000 | Court sets the amount it considers just |
| Willful | Up to $150,000 | Copyright owner proves willfulness |
| Innocent | Down to $200 | Infringer proves it was not aware and had no reason to believe its acts infringed |
Under 17 U.S.C. 504(c), the owner may elect, at any time before final judgment, to recover statutory damages instead of actual damages and profits. One award covers all infringements involved in the action with respect to any one work, for which one infringer is liable, or two or more are jointly and severally liable. All the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work. The court must also remit statutory damages for employees of nonprofit schools, libraries and archives, and for public broadcasters, who reasonably believed their use was a fair use.
| Works infringed | Ordinary: minimum | Ordinary: maximum | Willful: maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $750 | $30,000 | $150,000 |
| 3 | $2,250 | $90,000 | $450,000 |
| 5 | $3,750 | $150,000 | $750,000 |
| 10 | $7,500 | $300,000 | $1,500,000 |
| 25 | $18,750 | $750,000 | $3,750,000 |
If a court finds infringement innocent, the minimum drops to $200 per work. Each infringer who is liable individually faces its own award for a work, while infringers who are jointly and severally liable share one award for that work.
Statutory damages and attorney's fees are available only if the work was registered before the infringement began, or, for a published work, within 3 months after first publication
Section 412 bars an award of statutory damages or attorney's fees for infringement of an unpublished work that began before its registration took effect. It also bars them for infringement of a published work that began after first publication and before registration, unless registration is made within three months after first publication. There are narrow exceptions for preregistered works, some live broadcasts and visual artists' rights claims. Registration also matters for getting into court: no civil action for infringement of a United States work may be instituted until preregistration or registration has been made, or refused.
When registration takes effect. The effective date of registration is the day on which an acceptable application, deposit and fee have all been received by the Copyright Office, not the day the certificate arrives. That is the date to enter in the calculator.
Copyright notice and the innocent infringer defense. If a proper copyright notice appeared on the published copies the defendant had access to, no weight is given to a defense of innocent infringement in reducing actual or statutory damages, except for the nonprofit and public broadcasting remission described above.
The Copyright Claims Board is established in the Copyright Office as an alternative forum that parties use voluntarily to resolve certain copyright claims. Its statutory damages follow section 504(c) with lower caps. For works timely registered under section 412, it may award up to $15,000 per work. For works not timely registered, it may award up to $7,500 per work, or $15,000 in total in one proceeding. The Board may not consider whether the infringement was willful. A party may not recover more than $30,000 in one proceeding, not counting any attorneys' fees and costs the Board awards. To bring a claim, the owner must first have filed a completed registration application, deposit and fee, or already hold a registration.
Actual damages and profits. Instead of statutory damages, an owner can recover its actual damages plus the infringer's profits not already counted. When actual damages are small, the $750 minimum per work can be worth more, and the owner can switch to statutory damages any time before final judgment.
For profits, the owner only has to prove the infringer's gross revenue; the infringer then has to prove its deductible expenses and the part of its profit that came from factors other than the copyrighted work.
Attorney's fees. The court may award full costs and a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party, subject to the registration rule above.
Deadline. No civil action may be maintained unless it is commenced within three years after the claim accrued.
When negotiating a settlement, weigh the per-work range, how strong the evidence of willfulness is, whether registration was timely, and the cost of litigating. A claim that is not eligible for statutory damages or fees is limited to actual damages and profits, which may be much smaller. Settlement proceeds may be taxable; see our settlement tax calculator. For other claims, see our defamation settlement calculator and prejudgment interest calculator.
$750 to $30,000 per work infringed, as the court considers just. For willful infringement the court may increase the award to $150,000 per work, and for an innocent infringer it may reduce it to $200 per work.
For a published work, statutory damages and attorney's fees are available for infringement that began before registration only if the work was registered within three months after first publication.
Per work. One award covers all infringements of a work by an infringer (or infringers who are jointly liable), and all parts of a compilation or derivative work count as one work.
Not in federal court for infringement that began before registration, unless a published work was registered within the 3-month grace period. The Copyright Claims Board can award up to $7,500 per work, $15,000 in total, for works not timely registered.
Only if the registration rule in section 412 is met. Then the court may award full costs and a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party, at its discretion.
Up to $15,000 per timely registered work and no more than $30,000 in total in one proceeding, not counting attorneys' fees and costs. It cannot increase damages for willfulness.
A civil action must be commenced within three years after the claim accrued.