CLEVELAND, Ohio --
Local news anchor Catherine Bosley triumphed this week over Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt in the latest round of a years-long battle over a revealing photo of her his publication ran without permission.
This week, a federal appeals court rejected an appeal by Flynt's company to overturn a 2010 jury verdict that had awarded her $135,000 in damages.
The photo was one of several taken in 2003 when the then-37-year-old television anchor participated in a Key West bar's wet T-shirt contest while she was on vacation.
The photographer who captured images of Bosley disrobing during the contest without her knowledge posted them online and they quickly went viral. The attention soon caused Bosley to resign her job at a CBS-affiliate station in Youngstown.
Bosley and her husband later negotiated with the amateur photographer for rights to the photos so they could prevent them from being disseminated, according to court filings.
She was later hired at WOIO Channel 19, where she now co-anchors the noon newscast and reports other news shows. (Her Facebook page, here)
Bosley's suit against Flynt's company L.F.P Inc. stemmed from Hustler printing one of the copyrighted photos of Bosley in 2006 as a part of its "Hot News Babes" feature.
The magazine calls the feature a contest in which readers nominate attractive female news personalities to be spotlighted in return for a Hustler "prize pack."
After a reader nominated Bosley, the magazine plucked a photo from the Internet in which her breast was partially exposed. It was one of the photos Bosley owned the copyright for.
The Cleveland-based law firm Haber Polk Kabat LLP, who handled the federal copyright infringement case, argued that the magazine blatantly violated Bosley's rights by failing to get her permission to print the photo. Their only motive was to make money, the lawyers argued.
"When Ms. Bosley and her husband decided to file the lawsuit, they knew that there was a very real risk of additional publicity of an event in their lives that caused a lot of pain, both personally and professionally," attorney Andrew Kabat said in an email.
Though the event is in the past, Kabat said Bosley "is proud that she did not back down in the face of the corporate juggernaut created by Larry Flynt Publications."
Hustler's lawyers had argued to the jury and to the appeals judges that they didn't need permission to publish the photograph and didn't seek it after their law firm advised them it wasn't necessary.
A federal jury sided with Bosley and her husband Richard Brown in 2010 and awarded them $135,000.
The trial court did dismiss a violation of privacy rights complaints that had been a part of the original filing.
Flynt's attorney Timothy Murphy did not return a call for comment Thursday.