In the winter of 2013, when the principal of Houston ISD’s Westside High School suggested making copies of colorful study guides recently purchased from a small Austin-area company, an English teacher responded that there was a “glaring disclaimer about copyright” at the bottom of the documents.
The teacher suggested the guides, which cost nearly $2,000 total, should be handed out during class and picked up before the final bell. But when the school’s principal brushed aside the copyright concerns, the teacher fell in line.
“I’m ok with violating it though…lol,” the teacher wrote in an email, according to a lawsuit.
The guide’s creator, DynaStudy, got the last laugh on Thursday, when a federal jury awarded the company $9.2-million after finding dozens of HISD employees repeatedly violated federal copyright laws pertaining to the guides. Jurors sided with DynaStudy on all counts following a seven-day trial, validating allegations that HISD staffers cropped out the company’s logo, hid copyright violation warnings and widely distributed the manipulated study guides to colleagues throughout the district.
The verdict offered a resounding victory to DynaStudy, a 13-year-old company with two full-time employees that has sold educational products to more than 650 Texas districts. DynaStudy first raised potential copyright issues with HISD in 2012, filed its lawsuit in 2016, then spent three years in litigation with the state’s largest school district.
“DynaStudy is inspired to return its energy and resources back to its mission of ‘evening the learning field’ by getting effective learning tools into the hands of students in Houston and across Texas,” the company’s owner, Ellen Harris, wrote in an email. “This verdict both affirms copyright law and enables DynaStudy to reimagine the best possible business model to accomplish its mission.”
In a statement Friday, HISD administrators said they are “reviewing the verdict to determine next steps.” They added that all employees now participate in online training on copyright laws at the beginning of each school year, with principals receiving additional in-person training.
HISD administrators did not respond to questions about what source of funds would be used to pay the verdict. The district budgeted about $1.9 million in fiscal 2019 for liability insurance, though it’s not clear whether the insurance would cover the verdict.
HISD Board President Diana Dávila said a roughly $7 million verdict against the district in 2017 was paid from the reserve fund, but trustees did not know whether that would happen in the DynaStudy case.
DynaStudy was represented by Cole Schotz member Gary Sorden and associate Timothy Craddick, and Klemchuk lawyer Mandi Phillips.
For a longer version of this article, please visit the Houston Chronicle.