Appeal rejected, Tur gets nothing.

Bob Tur may have zoomed in a bit too close this time.

The camera-toting television helicopter pilot came up on the short end of a court ruling in which he sought millions of dollars in license fees from his riot-related footage of the 1992 assault of Reginald Denny that followed the acquittal of police officers charged in the Rodney King beating.

Tur had successfully argued in federal court that his Los Angeles News Service's copyright to the footage had been infringed by Reuters Television International Ltd. and Visnews International Ltd., a joint venture of NBC, Reuters Television and the British Broadcasting Co.

But despite a $60,000 statutory damages award in the case from a judge in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Tur appealed, claiming he was entitled to actual damages--all the license fees and other profits made by Reuters and Visnews when transmitting the Denny footage worldwide.

George Caplan, a partner at Kaye Scholer LLP representing L.A. News Service, said, "Reuters copied the video, over its own wire, and shipped it out all over the world, depriving LANS of that entire world market."

Two judges of a three-judge panel in the 9th Circuit disagreed, according to an opinion issued last month that said, "the district court correctly concluded that LANS could not recover actual damages for overseas effects of defendants' infringement."

In choosing to appeal the lower court award, Tur forfeited the $60,000 judgment.

Robert Vanderet, a partner at O'Melveny & Myers LLP representing Reuters, said that had Tur been successful, it "would have changed the nature of U.S. copyright laws."

One judge agreed with L.A. News Service, adding that "profits" and "actual damages" are not the same. Caplan, noting the judge's dissent, said he has petitioned the 9th Circuit to rehear the case.