What statutory damages are
U.S. copyright law lets an owner choose an award within a range set by the statute instead of proving actual losses or the infringer's profits. The award is generally calculated per work infringed rather than per copy, so dozens of copies of one photograph usually count as a single work. The court or jury picks a figure within the range, which can be raised for willful infringement and lowered when an infringer shows it was not aware and had no reason to believe it was infringing. The owner can make the election at any point before final judgment, so the choice can wait until the evidence is clearer.
Registration timing decides eligibility
Outside the Copyright Claims Board, which can still award statutory damages at a lower cap in some of these cases, statutory damages and attorney's fees generally are not available for infringement that began before registration, unless the work was registered within a short grace period after first publication. This is the issue that ends many statutory damages claims before they start, and registering afterward does not fix it for infringement already underway. Pull your registration certificates, effective dates, publication dates, and evidence of when the use began. For most U.S. works, registration is still needed before a lawsuit can proceed, even where statutory damages are off the table.
Using the remedy realistically
Statutory damages shape settlement conversations, which is one reason claim letters cite them so often. Courts weigh the circumstances of each use, so the statutory range works as an outer boundary rather than a price list. If you received a letter citing statutory damages, the same timing questions apply in reverse: when was the work registered, and when did your use start? We go through those dates, the number of works involved, evidence bearing on willfulness or innocence, and whether a license or a fair use argument changes the picture.
