Copyright infringement, David Beats Goliath (again)

In AFP v. Morel, 10 Civ. 02730 (AJN) ( SDNY Jan. 14, 2013) , Judge Alison Nathan, USDJ, SDNY, decided summary judgment motions in an interesting case. Judge Nathan held that it may constitute copyright infringement for a news organization and image distributor to extract photographs posted by an individual to Twitter and then license them to others. The photographer, Daniel Morel, had traveled to Haiti after the earthquake and took several photos, which he posted to his Twitter account. When Agence France Press and Getty Images took them and began licensing them and using them, Morel publicly complained about the unauthorized use. Brazenly, Agence France and Getty then sued the photographer for defamation and sought a declaratory judgment. Judge Nathan’s recent ruling is a victory and sets a hopeful precedent that may protect individuals’ photographs and other images that are

posted to Twitter, maintaining some measure of copyright protection against unmitigated unauthorized marketing of such images.