Artist Claims Soul-Clearing, DNA-Repatterning Motivational Speaker Jacked His Depictions Of 'Sacred Geometries'

from the layers-of-loopiness dept

Here's the sort of copyright infringement lawsuit you don't see every day: a holistic motivational speaker purveying an off-brand Scientology designed to get true believers laid better sales commissions being sued by an artist whose portfolio contains over 400 representations of "sacred geometries."

The following is stated under "FACTS COMMON TO ALL COUNTS" in the lawsuit. There are some alleged facts in here, but very few of those are included in the intellectual property being sued over.

PLAINTIFF is the copyright proprietor of a series of original artistic designs and characteristics collectively known and referred to herein as "SACRED GEOMETRY".

PLAINTIFF is informed and believes that DEFENDANTS, and each of them produced or caused to be produced and distributed or caused to be distributed a "meditation video" entitled, "SOUL LEVEL CLEARING, DNA REPATTERNING, AND ACTIVATION OF THE HIGHER SELF" bearing a "Copyright (c) Toby Alexander, 2014" notice.

The disputed property consists of images -- some sort of computer-aided-Spirograph artwork produced by Endre Balogh. Balogh offers prints of these "sacred geometries" for sale at his site for $47 per print. Apparently, a small number of his 445 "geometries" were used without permission in one of Toby Alexander's videos.

Alexander also sells some stuff, but it mostly falls in the "service" part of "goods and services." What he offers is priced considerably higher.

PLAINTIFF alleges that none of the DEFENDANTS at any time were issued a license to use any "SACRED GEOMETRY" in any of its publications in any media, including, but not limited to SOUL LEVEL CLEARING, DNA REPATTERNING, AND ACTIVATION OF THE HIGHER SELF that was apparently sold to the public at a price of $977.50.

Alexander offers webinars "Tobinars" and a smattering of gratis, "empowering," spacey pep talks at his site, which congratulates you for the innate "intuition" that brought you there. (Somehow I feel that reading the details of the copyright lawsuit where Alexander is named as a defendant isn't the sort of "intuition" he has in mind…) One of those pep talks is entitled:

Why You Are Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Immortal as Now Proven by Science

So you, the reader, have that going for you. Which is nice.

Balogh alleges that Alexander used seven of his "sacred" images in a video running approximately 30 minutes long. There's probably a case for fair use in there, but I doubt that will be explored. This tends to get overlooked if a commercial enterprise is involved. (Which it shouldn't, but it does happen quite a bit.)

Nor will the lawsuit -- if it makes it to trial -- discuss the relative merits/legitimacy of the two parties' offerings. While this would be much more entertaining than a discussion of the relative merits of Balogh's infringement claim, the court's focus will be on the aspects of the alleged infringement. Unfortunately, we can't view this alleged infringement for ourselves as Balogh has thoughtfully omitted any link to the offending video and Alexander's YouTube presence consists of stuff all over the place, uploaded under different names. But the alleged infringement probably looks something like this:


According to Balogh, Alexander's use of six of his 445 "sacred geometries" has managed to gut the market for $47 prints of computer-generated doodling.

While the said "SACRED GEOMETRY" is being unlawfully used by DEFENDANTS, PLAINTIFF is unable to market this same "SACRED GEOMETRY" and any financial benefits from other licensees as such licenses are usually sought on an exclusive use basis.

Seeing as Endre Balogh has only three items registered with the US Copyright Office -- only one of which is an image -- actual damages will be the only thing he can recover. The filing also lacks any paperwork related to copyright registration, another sign that Balogh's hundreds of images are protected by only the "automatic" protection afforded it once they were affixed to his hard drive/cloud drive.

He's asking for $100,000 (and $1 million in punitive damages). Somehow, I think any awarded damages will be significantly lower than that amount. The lack of registration likely explains the lack of "statutory damages" demands, so good work on the part of his lawyer for not making this lawsuit any shakier than it already is.

Filed Under: dna repatterning, endre balogh, sacred geometries, self help, tobinars, toby alexander