Winning a copyright case is not the same thing as getting paid. Before litigation makes financial sense, you need to know what a judgment can actually do for you.

In Part 1, we looked at the first question: Can you sue?

In Part 2, we looked at the second: Can you identify the person responsible?

Suppose you cleared both gates. You registered in time, you identified a real person, you won. There is still one more question. Can you actually recover anything?

Gate three: a judgment is a piece of paper, not a payment

A court judgment gives you a legal right to payment. It does not automatically put money in your account. This becomes particularly important when the person you sued is in another country. A US judgment is enforceable in the US. Enforcing it against assets in another country means a second proceeding in that country's courts, under that country's rules on recognizing foreign judgments.

Within the EU, recognition between member states is comparatively simple under the Brussels regime. Between the US and much of the rest of the world, it is a fresh case with fresh costs. That leads to a practical question that is easy to overlook when calculating the value of litigation: Where is the defendant's money?

The economics of winning

The number on the judgment is not the same as the amount you recover. Winning is also not the same thing as getting your money back. Even where a decision is enforceable, recovery depends on the defendant holding assets you can actually reach. A judgment against an offshore operator with nothing attachable is legally real and economically ineffective at the same time.

And running underneath all of it: Article 14 of the Enforcement Directive states the general European rule that reasonable and proportionate legal costs are borne by the unsuccessful party. That cuts both ways. It makes a strong EU case cheaper to bring than an American one, and it makes a weak EU case considerably more expensive to lose.

What about an injunction?

There is another reason to litigate: Stopping the infringement.

While all of this proceeds, the file is still up. Damages do not delete anything. That is not a flaw in the system, it is the system working as designed: courts award compensation, and removal is a separate request that a court may or may not grant, against a party who may or may not be reachable. One exception is worth knowing. Both systems allow interim relief before final judgment, under 17 U.S.C. § 502 in the US and Article 9 of the Enforcement Directive in the EU, where the legal test is met and, where required, security is lodged.

The fourth cost, which nobody puts on the invoice: your privacy

There is another cost that is easy to miss. Litigation can make private information public.

Court filings are public records. They are indexed, they are permanent, and they are searchable by anyone who ever wants to know more about you than you have chosen to publish.

Public federal court records search

[YOUR LEGAL NAME] v. DOE 1-10 Copyright infringement · Filed 2026 · Open docket · PUBLIC

Complaint (Dkt. 1) Identifies the plaintiff and describes the works at issue · INDEXED

This is the record a copyright case creates. It does not expire, and it is not stored anywhere you control.

A copyright complaint has to identify the work and the plaintiff. For a creator working under a stage name, that means the document connecting your legal name to your content becomes a public filing. Courts can allow a plaintiff to proceed pseudonymously, and in cases involving intimate material they sometimes do, but it is discretionary, it is decided case by case, and it is argued after you have already committed to filing.

Sit with the shape of that. A lawsuit brought to protect your privacy can be the single act that permanently links your legal identity to your work in a public, indexed record. For some creators that trade is acceptable. It should never be one you discover halfway through.

So if privacy is a major concern, it should be part of the litigation strategy from the beginning.

So, is litigation worth it?

There is no universal answer.

Litigation can make sense when the facts justify the cost and the potential remedies are meaningful.

For example, the calculation changes if:

  • the infringer is a commercial operator;
  • the infringement is systematic rather than isolated;
  • the defendant has identifiable and reachable assets;
  • the work was registered in time for the remedies you are seeking;
  • the infringement is causing substantial ongoing damage;
  • the defendant has refused reasonable removal requests; or
  • you need a court order that ordinary notices cannot provide.

It can make less practical sense when the defendant is anonymous, located abroad, has no reachable assets and can simply create another account after the case ends.

That is why "Can I sue?" is often the wrong first question.

The better question is: "What result do I need, and is litigation the most practical way to get it?"

That is what we will look at in Part 4.

FAQ

Will suing put my real name on the internet?

It can. Federal filings are public and permanently indexed. Courts sometimes permit pseudonymous filing in cases involving intimate material, but permission is discretionary and argued after you commit to filing. For a creator working under a stage name, this is often the largest cost in the case and it is almost never priced into the decision.

Notes and sources: US statutory references are to 17 U.S.C. § 502 (injunctions).

EU references are to Directive 2004/48/EC Articles 9, 11 and 14 (provisional measures, injunctions including against intermediaries, and legal costs), and Directive 2001/29/EC Article 8(3) (injunctions against intermediaries). Recognition and enforcement of judgments within the EU may also be governed by Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 (Brussels I Recast), subject to its scope and applicable conditions.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Copyright law and available remedies differ by jurisdiction and by the facts of your case.