An Idaho photographer has sued the social media site Buzzfeed for $3.6 million. The lawsuit says the site is liable for damages, not just for publishing the photographer's photo of a female soccer player heading a ball back in 2010 but for every one of the dozens of sites that ran the photo after Buzzfeed.

Buzzfeed took the photo down in May 2011 right after the plaintiff, Kai Eiselein, sent a takedown notice. Instead of being satisfied, Eiselein apparently spent time scouring the Web for every copy he could find. Ultimately Eiselein found 41 copies of his photo, many at foreign blogs like mudrila.ru. He also registered the photo's copyright, perhaps in preparation for his lawsuit.

Eiselein's claim that Buzzfeed is "unequivocally responsible both directly and indirectly for all subsequent infringements" is shaky to say the least. Damages for the 23 "contributory infringements" occurring after June 25, 2011 (when Eiselein registered the photo's copyright) add up to $3,450,000, according to Eiselein's math.

Despite having two years to hunt for a lawyer, Eiselein wrote the complaint himself and has no attorney. His go-it-alone approach in this case is telling. Legal fees and heavy damages are usually available for victorious copyright plaintiffs, so if he had any chance of getting Buzzfeed to pay for infringements by obscure foreign sites, his case would presumably be attractive to many attorneys.

The lawsuit, first reported by paidContent, is mainly notable as an example of how copyright is out-of-whack in the digital age. Eiselein's photo probably had little to no commercial value before being allegedly infringed, but a little bit of unauthorized sharing made his case appear very valuable, at least to him, because of large legal penalties.

Buzzfeed's founder has said its use of others' photos in its montages are "transformative" and therefore fair use. That's probably a reach, as photos are reproduced exactly as they are, in fairly high quality, and without deep commentary or analysis. In any case, defending any content on the basis of fair use is time-consuming and expensive.

"I'm not against sharing, when it's done properly," Eiselein told Ars. "The infringement problem comes into play when big players like Buzzfeed bulldoze their way through the web with no regard for others' IP rights in search of content to drive traffic to their site and ultimately, cash into their coffers."

In a statement to The Guardian, Eiselein said: "In the suit I have asked for the maximum allowed by law. Ultimately it will be up to a judge and/or jury to decide the amount of damages, if any."

The image was part of a series of photos featured in a BuzzFeed post entitled “The 30 Funniest Header Faces,” which was changed to "The 29 Funniest Header Faces” after Eiselein's takedown.

Update 7:45 CT: Story was updated with a statement from Eiselein.