Photo Attorney

Judge Richard Posner currently is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and is on the faculty at the University of Chicago Law School. He is a prolific writer, including a book entitled "The Little Book of Plagiarism" (an excellent read).

Recently on his blog that he shares with Gary Becker, Judge Posner proposed an expansion of copyright law to ban linking/paraphrasing of newspaper stories in an effort to ensure the viability of the industry. His proposal, not surprisingly, is being discussed by many. To find a vast selection of them, just search "Posner" and "copyright." While the Judge's proposal seems extreme, such extreme ideas lead to discussion, analysis, and - hopefully - resolution.

Ed. note - there is no right of publicity for animals!

People who receive notice of copyright infringement respond in different ways. Some are apologetic, others are belligerent, and the rest fall in-between. Following are two responses that appear to be on the extreme end (ed. note - the photographers are not clients).

1. www.nomoporker.blogspot.com (click to enlarge):

Check the comments, too.

Thanks to Ken Shelton (the photographer who defended his rights) for submitting this.

2. E_B_A reports on emails he received from a guy who copied his images without permission and who demanded that E_B_A put them back.

Sadly amazing.

Wired.com reports on the similarity between Kayak's and Bing's websites. Rebecca Tushnet notes on her 43(B)log that Kayak might have copyright and/or trade dress infringement claims against Bing.

If you design your website and someone copies it, check with your attorney to see if you have a copyright and/or trade dress infringement claim.

Check out the latest edition of the PhotoLegal Podcast. I join Darren Hector, James Barisic, and Phill Price to compare U.S. copyright and other laws that affect photographers with those across the pond.

Here are some more terms and conditions that need close review (and some are alarming!):

Share the Experience Photo Contest - The Rules states that:

Submission of an entry in this Contest constitutes entrant's irrevocable assignment, conveyance, and transference to Sponsors of all right, title, and interest in the entry, including, without limitation, all copyrights.

Alliance of Actions Sports - The User Content Submission Agreement provides:

In connection with all User Content you submit using the User Content Submission Features, you grant to ALLI, and the Affiliates, the unqualified, unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual and royalty free right, license, authorization and permission, in any form or format, on or through any media or medium and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed or discovered, in whole or in part, to host, cache, store, maintain, use, reproduce, distribute, display, exhibit, perform, publish, broadcast, transmit, modify, prepare derivative works of, adapt, reformat, translate, and otherwise exploit all or any portion of your User Content on the Site and any other channels, services, and other distribution platforms, whether currently existing or existing or developed in the future, of ALLI, and the Affiliates (collectively, the "Platforms"), for any purpose whatsoever (including, without limitation, for any promotional purposes) without accounting, notification, credit or other obligation to you, and the right to license and sub-license and authorize others to exercise any of the rights granted hereunder to ALLI, and the Affiliates, in our sole discretion.

Nature Conservancy Digital Photo Contest:

By entering the contest, you hereby grant to The Nature Conservancy (i) a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform the photographs you submit to The Nature Conservancy, and (ii) the right to use your name, city, state and country of residence in promotions and other publications.

City of Toronto Photo Contest - The Rules state:

By entering the contest, you agree to have any of your winning photos and photos that receive honourable mention displayed at City locations and used in City of Toronto print and electronic communication materials, advertising and promotional materials and on the City's website, for any purpose and at any time in the future, without any fee or other form of compensation.

Art Wolfe's Photo Contest:

By entering the contest, entrants grant Art Wolfe, Inc a royalty-free, world-wide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to display, distribute, reproduce, and create derivative works of the entries, in whole or in part, in any media now existing or subsequently developed, for any purpose, excluding resale. Any photograph reproduced will include a photographer credit. Art Wolfe, Inc. will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such uses.

The rules apparently have been revoked. Of course, as a wonderful professional photographer, we're sure that Art doesn't need our photos for any purpose other than the contest!

Thanks to Bill Boswell, Thomas Di Nardo, Arcady Genkin, and Annie Libby for submitting these alerts.

Many photographers are also authors. If you published a book before January 5, 2009, your work may be subject to a class action lawsuit brought by authors and publishers, claiming that Google has violated their copyrights by scanning their books, creating an electronic database, and displaying short excerpts without the permission of the copyright holders. As a member of the class, your rights may be effected unless you take action.

As the Cornell Legal Information Institute explains, a class action "is a procedural device that permits one or more plaintiffs to file and prosecute a lawsuit on behalf of a larger group. The class members [are those] who have suffered the same wrong at the hands of the defendant but who are too numerous for the court to adequately manage the lawsuit if each class member were required to be joined as named plaintiffs." If you meet the definition of the class, then you are part of the class, even if you didn't take steps to join the class. Instead, you must "opt out" of the class if you don't want to take part.

The class action lawsuit is entitled The Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., Case No. 05 CV 8136 (S.D.N.Y.) The Court has preliminarily approved a settlement. The details are available at www.googlebooksettlement.com.

Some important deadlines are coming up in the settlement:

• Claim your Books and Inserts: You can do this at any time, but in order to be eligible for Cash Payments for Books, you must complete your Claim Form on or before January 5, 2010.
• Opt out of the Settlement:Must be submitted online or postmarked on or before September 4, 2009.
• File an objection or notice of intent to appear at the Fairness Hearing: Must be postmarked on or before September 4, 2009.

If you're part of the settlement class, review the materials and talk with your attorney about what action you should take. To help explain what's going on with the case, the Copyright Clearance Center has posted a series of interviews, seminars, and presentations featuring leading experts who are well versed on the settlement and its various components.

This is another one of those circumstances that you must act now or forever hold your peace!