NY Court Smacks Plaintiff Who Sued for Copyright Infringment over Use of Film Clip in Obituary

In a victory for fair use, Judge Barbara N. Jones granted the motion of defendants CNN, ABC and CBS for attorneys fees after they obtained summary judgment that their use of a brief film clip from the movie "The Story of G.I. Joe" in the obituary for actor Robert Mitchum was fair use, not copyright infringement.  The Court found that the plaintiff's case was objectively unreasonable, especially given that the networks ran clips of 6-22 seconds of the 108 minute film.  The Second Circuit has consistently found fair use in cases where defendants used only a small part of the copyrighted work.  The Court also noted that defendants' use of the clips was transformative because the purpose was to inform the public of Mitchum's impact on the arts, not to entertain the public or educate them about the role of infantrymen in World War II.  Finally, the Court observed that the plaintiff bought the rights to "The Story of GI Joe" after Mitchum's death, apparently for the sole purpose of suing news orgnaizations, and sent letter to 12 different news organizations demanding $5,000 or $10,000, even though some of them had never even aired clips of the film at all.   The Court held that imposing fees against the plaintiff would promote the copyright act's "purpose of enriching the general public through access to creative works..." (citing the Supreme Court in the landmark Fogerty case).  The Court explained that denying attorney fees "would diminish any incentive for defendants to incurr the often hefty costs of litigation."  You can find the opinion on Westlaw at 2003 WL 1701904.  
This case had a happy ending, but how many people threatened or sued for use of material that is plainly protected as fair use have the resources of CNN, ABC and CBS to spend defending their rights?