A Virginia federal court has made a decision that photographers won’t be happy to hear: the court ruled that finding a photo on the Internet and then using it without permission on a commercial website can be considered fair use.
Copyright protections for photographers seriously compromised here.
Sandy
The ruling on the Brammer photo by a judge in the eastern district of Virginia is not likely to change the current copywrite law for photographs. The link below will take you to a response from an attorney who is an expert in copywrite law who explains how the decision quotes the law incorrectly, does not correctly cite previous decisions, mention numerous decisions that conflict with this opinion and is almost certainly to be overturned on appeal.
The judge who made ruling is in "senior status" which means they are semi retired. Some judge's carry this status and work part time and may or may not have the typical resources (law clerks, research support) that an normal federal judge has. The judge who made this ruling was put on the federal bench in 1985. The other key factor would how Brammer's attorney presented the case and how he supported his case citing law and other previous decisions. Regardless this case seems to be headed to being overturned.
Additional info on this copywrite case: the photo is a screen shot submitted by the plaintiffs - the photographer - attorney as an exhibit in this case. The screen shot is the photograph on Flickr and if examine the lower right corner you will see the copywrite symbol and theccwords "all rights reserved". Hard to see how someone could miss this in "good faith". Makes this court decision all the more curious.
Discussion
4 repliesA Virginia federal court has made a decision that photographers won’t be happy to hear: the court ruled that finding a photo on the Internet and then using it without permission on a commercial website can be considered fair use.
Copyright protections for photographers seriously compromised here.Sandy
https://petapixel.com/2018/07/02/court-rules-copying-photos-found-on-internet-is-fair-use/
ML🤐
The judge who made ruling is in "senior status" which means they are semi retired. Some judge's carry this status and work part time and may or may not have the typical resources (law clerks, research support) that an normal federal judge has. The judge who made this ruling was put on the federal bench in 1985. The other key factor would how Brammer's attorney presented the case and how he supported his case citing law and other previous decisions. Regardless this case seems to be headed to being overturned.
https://www.trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com/2018/06/no-virginia-you-cant-just-copy-stuff-you-find-on-the-internet-even-if-you-dont-notice-the-copyright-notice