What infringement actually pays: statutory ranges, CCB caps, and the registration trap
| Scenario | Per Work | 3 Works | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard infringement | $750 – $30,000 | $2,250 – $90,000 | Federal court |
| Willful infringement | up to $150,000 | up to $450,000 | Federal court |
| Innocent infringement | as low as $200 | as low as $600 | Federal court |
| Any scenario, capped | $15,000 max | $30,000 max | Copyright Claims Board |
The court picks the number within the range — not you, not a formula. The figure that gets cited in demand letters is a claim, and settlements land wherever leverage does.
| Federal Court | Copyright Claims Board | |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory damages cap | $30,000/work ($150,000 willful) | $15,000/work, $30,000 total |
| Works per case | Unlimited | 3 |
| Filing cost | ≈$400–500 plus attorneys | $40 now, +$60 if it proceeds |
| Attorney's fees | Recoverable under §505 (timely registration) | Not awarded |
| Can the other side refuse? | No | Yes — opt-out forces federal court |
| Proceedings | Full litigation, years | Remote, streamlined, months |
The CCB was built for creators with small claims. Its weakness is the opt-out: a defendant who expects to lose $30,000 there can decline jurisdiction and push you back into the expensive forum. Many do.
US law gives an infringed creator two mutually exclusive measures, laid out in 17 U.S.C. §504: actual damages plus the infringer's attributable profits, or statutory damages. Statutory damages exist precisely for the case where proving loss is hopeless — someone steals a photo and you can't show what a license would have cost.
Statutory: works × per-work amount, bounded by the conduct tier — $750 to $30,000 standard, $200 to $30,000 innocent, $750 to $150,000 willful. At the CCB, apply its caps: count at most three works, cap each at $15,000, cap the total at $30,000. Actual: your provable losses (lost licenses, lost sales) plus the infringer's profits attributable to the infringement — but only the portion not already counted in your damages, so nothing gets recovered twice.
Pick a forum and a theory. For statutory, enter how many distinct works were infringed and what you'd claim per work — start at $7,500, the middle of the standard band, and move up with evidence of willfulness. The estimator shows both forum totals side by side, because the federal-vs-CCB gap is usually the decision. Registration timing is the gate before all of it: if the work wasn't registered in time, statutory damages are off the table and the actual-damages tab is your reality.
A photographer finds a marketing agency using three of her registered photos — registered before the infringement, so statutory damages are available. She claims $30,000 per work for willful use (the agency ignored a licensing notice): 3 × $30,000 = $90,000 in federal court. The same claim at the CCB hits both caps: $15,000 per work gives $45,000, but the $30,000 total cap governs — $30,000, a third of the federal number, in exchange for a $100 filing process instead of a five-figure legal fight.
Now the registration trap in the same facts. Had she registered after discovering the infringement, statutory damages and attorney's fees would be unavailable for a US work. Her claim collapses to actuals: $1,850 in lost licensing fees plus $940 of the agency's attributable profits = $2,790 — and she pays her own lawyer. Registration within three months of publication costs roughly $45–85 depending on application type (single work, standard, or group) and preserves the entire statutory regime. That is the cheapest legal decision in this entire field.
Statutory damages in federal court run $750 to $30,000 per infringed work, chosen by the court. Willful infringement lifts the ceiling to $150,000 per work, and innocent infringement can drop the floor to $200. Alternatively, you can claim actual damages plus the infringer's attributable profits. At the Copyright Claims Board, statutory damages are capped at $15,000 per work and $30,000 total.
For US works, yes — the Supreme Court's Fourth Estate decision in 2019 confirmed you must register (or have a registration application refused) before filing an infringement suit. And to claim statutory damages and attorney's fees, registration must generally predate the infringement or arrive within three months of first publication. Foreign works from Berne countries aren't subject to the registration bar.
The CCB is a small-claims tribunal inside the US Copyright Office, created by the CASE Act and operating since 2022. Claims cost $40 to file plus $60 if the case proceeds, cap statutory damages at $15,000 per work and $30,000 per proceeding across at most three works, and move remotely without attorneys' fees. The catch: respondents can opt out, forcing the case into federal court.
Per work. One infringed photograph is one work no matter how many sites copied it — though each infringer is separately liable. Whether a group of items counts as one work or several depends on how it was created and published: 12 photos published together as a set may be treated as a single work, while the same photos licensed individually usually count separately.
Infringement the infringer knew about or recklessly disregarded — using a photo after a licensing notice, ignoring a takedown request, or stripping attribution and continuing to publish. Willfulness is decided by the court and unlocks statutory damages up to $150,000 per work, so evidence that the infringer was notified and kept going is disproportionately valuable.