Glacier Films (Usa), Inc. v. Andrey Turchin, 896 F.3d 1033

Glacier Films owns the copyright to the motion picture American Heist, which leaked on BitTorrent and became widely pirated.
Glacier tracked one infringing IP to Andrey Turchin; the user distributed the film many times and was associated with hundreds of other titles.
Glacier subpoenaed the ISP, deposed Turchin (who admitted ongoing BitTorrent use), amended to name him, and ultimately entered a stipulated consent judgment: Turchin admitted liability-related facts, agreed to a permanent injunction, agreed to delete copies, and stipulated to $750 statutory damages; the parties left attorney’s fees for the court to decide under 17 U.S.C. § 505.
Glacier moved for costs ($791.70) and attorneys’ fees (~$4,833); the district court awarded costs but denied attorney’s fees, citing concerns about prolific BitTorrent litigation and characterizing Glacier’s success as minimal.
The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded, holding the district court abused its discretion by failing to apply Fogerty factors properly—particularly by not assessing the reasonableness of Turchin’s legal/factual positions and by relying on generalized criticisms of other BitTorrent cases rather than the specifics here.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Glacier’s request for reasonable attorneys’ fees under 17 U.S.C. § 505	Glacier: as the prevailing party that established liability (stipulated), fees are appropriate given total success, need for deterrence, defendant’s unreasonable defenses and delay	Turchin: Glacier’s monetary recovery was small; awarding fees would encourage overaggressive BitTorrent litigation and fees are unnecessary for deterrence	Ninth Circuit: Reversed and remanded. District court abused discretion by relying on broad critiques of other BitTorrent suits and failing to apply Fogerty factors—especially the reasonableness of defendant’s positions, deterrence, and purposes of the Copyright Act

Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc., 510 U.S. 517 (Sup. Ct. 1994) (sets nonexclusive factors for awarding fees under § 505)
Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 136 S. Ct. 1979 (Sup. Ct. 2016) (endorses totality-of-circumstances approach and gives weight to reasonableness of losing party’s position)
Perfect 10, Inc. v. Giganews, Inc., 847 F.3d 657 (9th Cir. 2017) (identifies additional factors courts may consider in fee decisions)
Wall Data Inc. v. Los Angeles Cty. Sheriff’s Dep’t, 447 F.3d 769 (9th Cir. 2006) (prevailing party status can exist despite nominal damages)
Magnuson v. Video Yesteryear, 85 F.3d 1424 (9th Cir. 1996) (small damages without fees can be insufficient for deterrence)
Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. WB Music Corp., 520 F.3d 588 (6th Cir. 2008) (fees can be awarded to deter a copyright holder’s overaggressive litigation)
Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (Sup. Ct. 1984) (Congress, not courts, should craft broad rule changes for new technologies)