Photographer Sues Getty Images For $1 Billion For Claiming Copyright On Photos She Donated To The Public

from the one-billion dept

Getty Images has a bit of a well-deserved reputation as a giant copyright troll, sending all kinds of nasty threat letters to people who use the images that Getty licenses. And even though it's showed some signs of adapting to the modern internet world, it hasn't given up on its standard trolling practices. It's also famously bad at it, often sending absolutely ridiculous threat letters.

But it may have sent one so stupid that it could potentially cost Getty itself a lot of money. That's because it sent a threat letter to famed photographer Carol Highsmith... demanding she pay up for posting her own damn photo. That would be bad enough on its own... but it's actually much, much worse. You see, Highsmith is such a wonderful person that she donated a massive collection of her photographs to the Library of Congress -- over 100,000 of them, for them to be released royalty free for the public to use. She didn't put them fully into the public domain, though, instead saying that anyone could use them so long as they gave credit back to her. It was basically a very early kind of version of what's now known as the Creative Commons Attribution License (which didn't exist at the time she made that agreement with the Library of Congress).

And, so here was Getty Images claiming that it held the copyright on these photos, demanding that Carol Highsmith pay up for using her own photograph, which she had deliberately donated to be used freely.

That's... not legal.

So Highsmith is now suing Getty Images for violating Section 1202 of the DMCA (part of the DMCA that doesn't get nearly as much attention) for falsifying copyright management information.
The Defendants have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people. The Defendants are not only unlawfully charging licensing fees to people and organizations who were already authorized to reproduce and display the donated photographs for free, but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner (or agents thereof), and threatening individuals and companies with copyright infringement lawsuits that the Defendants could not actually lawfully pursue.

As described further herein below, the conduct of the Defendants runs afoul of the DMCA’s provisions proscribing the removal, modification and falsification of “copyright management information,” unlawful conduct that has injured Ms. Highsmith, thereby entitling Ms. Highsmith to the relief sought herein.
The lawsuit notes that despite informing Getty that it was in the wrong, the company continued to demand money from other people making use of her photographs. She also notes that this is not the first time Getty was found to be violating DMCA 1202, and that justifies a much larger monetary punishment.
Getty has committed at least 18,755 separate violations of 17 U.S.C. § 1202, one count for each of the 18,755 Highsmith Photos appearing on Getty’s website. Thus, Ms. Highsmith is entitled to recover, among other things, and if she so elects, aggregate statutory damages against Getty of not less than forty-six million, eight hundred eighty-seven thousand five hundred dollars ($46,887,500) and not more than four hundred sixty-eight million, eight hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($468,875,000).

The unlawful conduct complained of herein is not Getty’s first violation of the DMCA, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 1202.

Getty was found by this Court to have violated 17 U.S.C. § 1202 within the last 3 years, and ordered to pay over $1 million in damages.

Because Getty has already had a final judgment entered against it by this Court under 17 U.S.C. § 1202 in the past three years, this Court may treble the statutory damages in this case against Getty.

Getty must therefore account for well over one billion dollars ($1B) in statutory copyright damages in this case.
The $1 billion number is a bit extreme, but it is true that Getty doesn't seem to care at all, and has been shaking down people for ages, sometimes over rights it does not hold. As the lawsuit notes, since Getty doesn't seem interested in changing its practices, perhaps a more stringent award is necessary.

If you're wondering about the previous case mentioned above, it's another one that we covered -- the weird and wacky case involving photos from Daniel Morel that were taken in Haiti, leading to a mess of a lawsuit (where almost everyone was totally confused at the beginning) that ended in Getty having to pay up for distributing a photo with incorrect attribution.

The lawsuit also goes after a smaller Getty competitor, Alamy, that is doing the same thing, and some Getty subsidiaries, LCS and Piscount, who, again, are doing the same thing (in fact, the threat letters Highsmith received were from Piscount and LCS). To make matters even more confusing, even though Alamy is a Getty competitor, it uses a Getty subsidiary, LCS, to send out threat letters demanding cash. The lawsuit explains that Highsmith called up LCS and had to talk with them for half an hour convincing them that she was the photographer, she holds the copyright and the images are all available royalty free for anyone to use (with credit back to Highsmith). LCS then informed her that the case against her "was closed" but... continued to shake down others using her images. That makes things look even worse for Getty in this lawsuit, because she can show at least some level of knowledge that they were making fraudulent copyright claims.

This should certainly be an interesting case to follow...
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Filed Under: attribution, carol highsmith, copyright, copyright troll, copyright trolling, dmca 1202, library of congress
Companies: alamy, getty images, lcs, piscount


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  • icon
    James Burkhardt (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 7:53am

    If there is any justice, Getty will get the full Gawker Treatment.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Vidiot (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 8:46am

    Thing is, given Getty's outlandish licensing fees, they might still break even after a $1B payout...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 8:51am

    getty doesn't getty it and never has. we need to rid ourselves of such vermin.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 8:52am

    Well these are some nice photos we just found laying around, no one owned them and everything needs to be owned by someone... so why not us.

    They push for harder laws, never expecting to be on receiving end of justice. Hoisted by their own petard.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Bergman (profile), 1 Aug 2016 @ 6:31am

      Re:

      Everybody does this. The US puts ISDS into treaties and expects nobody will ever use it against them. Democrats/Republicans issue abusive executive orders or pass abusive legislation on the presumption that the other party will NEVER retake office and use those abusive new powers against them.

      Why should copyright maximalists be any different? Especially given their claims that it's EASY to avoid committing copyright violations. If they actually believe their own propaganda on that, it's not surprising that they'd routinely trip over copyright laws and cruel & unusual statutory damages.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 8:54am

    Seems to me like THIS is what the MPAA/RIAA often called "copyright theft".

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Norahc, 28 Jul 2016 @ 8:56am

    One word

    Only one word can describe this...

    Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha*gasp*hahahahahaha

    Live by the copyright, pay by the copyright.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 8:56am

    Live by the copyright, die by the copyright

    This is more than fair game. I'd love to see Getty fall and less covetous and greedy services take its place.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:07am

    I hope Getty gets Gotten by this and will be getting gone soon!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    wshuff (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:09am

    Maybe PETA can jump in and claim the monkey Naruto owns them and seek some of that money. For the benefit of the monkey, of course.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:27am

      Re:

      Maybe someone should see if the Naruto's picture is on Getty and if they are claiming copyright on it.

      I keep forgetting, would that be irony or just stupidity.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 12:24pm

        Re: Re:

        Why can't it be both?

        However, someone who threatens to sue for copyright violation being sued for copyright violation *for the same image and by the person threatened* is definitely irony.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:31am

    A new business model?

    - Post your own images online with a creative commons license.
    - Use them on your own and friends' websites.
    - Wait until Getty (or similar) tries to shake you down.
    - Have a polite conversation with the troll, getting them to drop their claims against you because they're your photos.
    - Wait until friends are trolled.
    - Sue the troll
    - *PROFIT*!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      orbitalinsertion (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:36am

      Re: A new business model?

      Careful, someone will try and patent your reverse troll.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        peter, 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:31am

        Re: Re: A new business model?

        Except the idea is now published so cannot be patented......

        Um........

        Sorry I was forgetting diligent the American Patent office is at checking Prior Art.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2016 @ 5:31pm

          Re: Re: Re: A new business model?

          Just someone else to sue. Trying to parent Simone else's idea should be covered too.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    orbitalinsertion (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:35am

    After i saw this yesterday, i did a quick search for giggles. Straight off i found a book that gives a photo attribution to Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty.
    TIME Inside the White House- The History, Secrets and Style of the World's Most Famous Home

    You can find it in Google Books. The credits page is at the back, the image is at the beginning of the introduction.
    https://books.google.com/books?id=ragDDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q& amp;f=false

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      orbitalinsertion (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:40am

      Re:

      Eh, and i see this is generically mentioned in the filing, which i hadn't bothered to read... Good.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    David, 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:35am

    Interesting "charitable" behavior

    Of course getty will shake down its other customers for recovering any awards here, making anybody relying on its large offerings bleed here.

    That being said: this seems like a straightforward application of the relevant laws, one cannot seriously consider her acting in willful entrapment and there is no way to construe Getty's actions other than out of malicious and willful continuing disregard of the law.

    It will be quite interesting to hear Getty argue why the deuce they should not be punished according to the laws they use as justification for enforcing their profits.

    Corporations really have to learn that they don't own the world without even bothering to keep up their part of the deal.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      That One Guy (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 11:46am

      Re: Interesting "charitable" behavior

      Corporations really have to learn that they don't own the world without even bothering to keep up their part of the deal.

      The problem is that they have learned, in particular they've learned that if you have enough money and/or the right connections you can pretty much do whatever you want without repercussions, and at most you might have to throw some sod to the wolves and pretend to be so very sorry that you got caught doing something.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That One Guy (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:47am

    'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

    Yeah, as much as I'd love to see Getty absolutely hammered here for blatant and flagrant commercial copyfraud, they're a big company, so I don't see more than a wrist-slap handed out for their 'accidental mistake', certainly not anything even remotely in the range anyone asked for, whether just a few hundred million or the higher amount of one billion.

    Meanwhile individuals will continue to be slammed with insane fines for accidental or intentional copyright violations, because those that violate copyright must pay!

    Yet another case where I'd love to be proven wrong, but fully expect to showcase once again high-court/low-court treatment.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:53am

      Re: 'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

      Kill one person, you are a murdered.

      Murder thousands, you are a conqueror!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:54am

        Re: Re: 'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

        I messed it up... darnit!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Anarres (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:01am

      Re: 'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

      Yeah, I don't disagree. But, as noted in the complaint and this article, Getty has been sued before for misattributed photos, also by an individual photographer.

      Carol Highsmith is a known name, not Jane Doe. While a Jane Doe deserves her rights vindicated just the same, I admit I believe the whole context here matters to a judge.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      David, 28 Jul 2016 @ 11:12am

      Re: 'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

      I'm not all too sure about that. The rationale for having these laws that individuals are slapped around with when filesharing etc is actually more or less exactly aimed at the kind of reckless commercial unabated systematic copyright infringement Getty does here, and so are the rather lame DMCA provisions for false representation.

      If Getty is let off the hook here this would indicate that all the justifications for the penalties were a lie to start with.

      And once that is established in binding court precedent, Getty is in a whole lot more trouble regarding their business model. So Getty cannot afford to win this case. They also want to continue with their extortion model, and losing this case as well as having to take the punitive penalty would be a rather strong hit, and they are straight in the bullet eye of the law here.

      There will be a settlement with confidential terms. It will still set up a model for other litigants but at least not for other judges.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        That One Guy (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 11:43am

        Re: Re: 'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

        There will be a settlement with confidential terms. It will still set up a model for other litigants but at least not for other judges.

        Ah right, can't believe I forgot about the ultimate 'Get out of unwanted precedent' ploy of settlements.

        Company does something that might get them into hot water.
        Someone takes them to court over the matter.
        Rather than risk a ruling that might be actually damaging and/or set a precedent they don't like, they throw money at the problem and watch it disappear.
        And like that, ruling and precedent avoided, and all it took was some pocket change.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        R.H. (profile), 29 Jul 2016 @ 1:14am

        Re: Re: 'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

        I wonder if she'd be willing to settle though. The entire point of this case seems to be making sure that Getty (and others in the same industry) don't keep doing what they're doing. The best way to do that is by winning a case in court, not just getting a sealed settlement without an admission of guilt.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          PaulT (profile), 29 Jul 2016 @ 1:26am

          Re: Re: Re: 'Please hold all apluase until after the high-court treatment is handed out.'

          The problem, of course, is that these companies tend to have lawyers who specialise in stalling cases until the poorer side runs out of money and is forced to settle. She probably won't settle up front, but she also probably doesn't have as much money as Getty have in their legal fund.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Anarres (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:56am

    About damn time

    About damn time someone sues a copyright aggregator for misleading people about copyright rights they do not have.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Snapper, 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:58am

    Pistake

    They should rebrand Piscount as Pistake.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:08am

    Getty, meet Karma

    Carol Highsmith could hurt these trolls even more by using some of the award to setup a non-profit copyright troll legal defense fund.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Snapper, 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:11am

    Lying through Ars

    There's this lesson in why you shouldn't tell obvious lies from Ars Technica's report:

    Sarah Lochting, Getty Images vice president for communications, sent Ars a statement which said that the lawsuit was "the first time Getty Images was made aware of the matter. We are currently looking into these allegations with the aim of addressing these concerns as soon as possible."

    Lochting also underscored that LCS and Getty Images are "separate entities and have no operational relationship."

    However, DNS records show that LCS' listed address is 605 5th Avenue South, Suite 400 Seattle, Washington, which is Getty Images' corporate address, a fact that she would not explain to Ars.

    "It’s a no comment in response to your follow up questions," Lochting e-mailed.

    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/07/photographer-sues-getty-images-for-selling-photo s-she-donated-to-public/

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      That One Guy (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:16am

      Re: Lying through Ars

      "Oh uh... we just... share the building... not the rent of course, but the building. Also we had no idea who they were before you told us, we had been wondering who those strangers were that were wandering in and out of the building."

      Sounds like they expected Ars to just take their claims at face value and repeat them without any fact checking like the 'good' news agencies would have, and had no idea what to do when the lie was called.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 11:10am

        Re: Re: Lying through Ars

        "the first time Getty Images was made aware of the matter. We are currently looking into these allegations with the aim of addressing these concerns as soon as possible."

        A good starting point would be to figure out how tens of thousands of photographs just appeared in your collection without the legal niceties like copyright assignments.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      James Burkhardt (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:35am

      Re: Lying through Ars

      Really. First time. So the fact that your site suddenly stopped offering these photos is a complete coincidence?

      Also, we share an office, but we are unrelated....

      As an opinion site, the conclusions drawn by Techdirt are completely reasonable.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:13am

    As a hobby photographer who will publish my photos on my site under a creative commons licence, what could I do to defend myself/make it super easy to prove I own the pictures? I know the chance of my stuff being downloaded is close to zero, but you never know. When will getty (or other troll)just scrape the internet of pictures and start threatening people with lawsuits?

    Fucking bastards, if it is any time tremble damages can be justified, it is for stuff like this. Stealing stuff from all of us and demanding payment for doing it. Disgusting

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 11:47am

      Re:

      "what could I do to defend myself/make it super easy to prove I own the pictures?"

      Register your copyright before releasing it under a CC license.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 4:13pm

        Re: Re:

        That's costly tho.

        Watermarks are a cheap solution and free open source software exists to do it: http://www.openstego.com

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          John Fenderson (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 6:54pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          It costs $35, and is pretty painless. The legal advantages it gives are great enough so that if you're even a little worried about the issue, it's the only way to go.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 10:38am

    Just like the Happy Birthday song, only with pretty pictures

    I hope that Getty gets hammered on this. Not sure about the $1 billion dollar number, but it certainly needs to be high enough to hurt and make them think twice about doing it again.

    If content companies want the sheeple to respect copyright, they need to learn to respect copyright.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous, 28 Jul 2016 @ 11:02am

    I am not going comment on whether Getty Images practices or whether they deserve this lawsuit or not but rather on the true definition of "Royalty Free".

    "Royalty Free" or RF doesn't mean completely free, take it and do whatever you want with it.

    It means you pay a licensing fee at the outset but you don't have to pay each time you use it after that. You don't continue to pay royalties, hence "royalty free".

    According to Wikipedia the definition is as follows.

    "Royalty-free, or RF, refers to the right to use copyright material or intellectual property without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use or per volume sold, or some time period of use or sales."

    Take a look at any stock photo agency licensing agreement or speak to any lawyer who specializes in copyright or intellectual property rights law.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 29 Jul 2016 @ 12:46am

      Re:

      I'm not sure what you'/re getting at here. Are you saying Getty were OK to charge for the images so long as they didn't pay royalties? Or, are you just really struggling for something to split hairs over?

      "It means you pay a licensing fee at the outset but you don't have to pay each time you use it after that"

      ...and the licencing fee was agreed to be $0.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 11:08am

    Hundreds of millions in copyright damages!

    9 and 10 figure copyright lawsuits! Not just for the **AA organizations any more!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 1:05pm

    once getty is dead, i suggest cutting off its head and posting it at the entrance to the internet as a warning to others.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2016 @ 4:01pm

    Semi related, but...

    I've recently been annoyed by Getty since their emails started suddenly getting through my spam filter. And there's no "unsubscribe" option. Only a message saying to log into their site. Yet I can't because they've bought Thinkstock and other companies that held my original account, and therefore have multiple accounts under my single email address, and none of my password reset emails seems to get through to me.

    I'm not sure how they get away with this given that I don't want to see their emails but I have no option to unsubscribe other than logging into my account which I can't access.

    I know CAN-SPAM allows for mailing lists etc. but aren't they supposed to make it possible to unsubscribe?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Atkray (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 4:19pm

    Request please

    If this goes through can we have a Techdirt T-shirt with Carol Highsmith in the "One Billion Dollars" pose?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 28 Jul 2016 @ 9:54pm

    It would be a pity if discovery for the case lead to an audit of more images they claim to control, and showed a pattern.

    Wouldn't the DoJ be forced to pursue claims similar to the Megaupload clusterfuck? A business stealing others content, committing copyfraud, profiting for years. IP is our most valuable asset so the total destruction of the Getty empire would be a fitting result for those who abuse the law to profit from the works of others.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    PaulT (profile), 29 Jul 2016 @ 12:45am

    But remember folks, copyright is there purely to protect the rights of those poor artists, not to fill the coffers of large corporations...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      David, 30 Jul 2016 @ 10:54am

      Re:

      Well, the Naruto case moral is that whenever there is something worth sharing, there should be someone getting as much money from it as possible.

      Carol Highsmith has decided that she would not be the person getting as much money from her images as possible, so she basically has stopped counting as human and Getty stepped up the plate in order to prevent a vacuum (the world is full of suckers). Because Getty is the PETA of Public Domain.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Wendy Cockcroft, 29 Jul 2016 @ 3:16am

    Copyright theft

    Now, then, children, do we all know what copyright theft is?

    Yes, Johnny?

    That's right, Johnny, when someone claims copyright on items they did not create or did not have signed over to them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Royal Scam Steely Dan Fan, 29 Jul 2016 @ 8:27am

    Getty's Sovereignty

    Couldn't Getty claim sovereignty and demand this lawsuit go to arbitration tribunal? That tribunal would most likely side with the corporation over an individual. That would not be surprising these days.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Royal Scam Steely Dan Fan, 29 Jul 2016 @ 8:33am

    Copyright Fees Paid?

    Did this photographer pay the fee for each photograph's copyright? Also being that she donated these to Library of Congrss before Creative Commons Law, did she have agreement signed by authorized agent for Library of Congress?

    Probably dumb questions, just trying to imagine how Getty could weasel out of this lawsuit.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris Brand, 29 Jul 2016 @ 10:33am

    LoC disagrees with Highsmith

    The lawsuit states "At no time did Ms. Highsmith intend to abandon her rights in her photographs,
    including any rights of attribution or rights to control the terms of use for her photographs"

    Looking at the Library of Congress "rights and restrictions" page (https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/482_high.html), though, it pretty clearly states that the images are public domain:
    "Carol M. Highsmith's photographs are in the public domain." and "Ms. Highsmith has stipulated that her photographs are in the public domain.". That could be a mistake, of course, but they're usually pretty careful about that sort of thing.

    Of course that doesn't mean Getty is in the right, but it could certainly weaken her claim (not giving credit would be perfectly legal, for example).

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2016 @ 1:30pm

      Re: LoC disagrees with Highsmith

      Carol M. Highsmith's photographs are in the public domain." and "Ms. Highsmith has stipulated that her photographs are in the public domain.". That could be a mistake, of course, but they're usually pretty careful about that sort of thing.

      The contents of Exhibit B, which are presumably included with the papers (but not included in the embed), will show the court what sort of legal agreement existed between Ms. Highsmith and the LOC...and the LOC has been wrong before (well, ok, the US Copyright Office, which is part of the LOC), so I wouldn't necessarily point to their statements as the end all in this regard.

      The lawyers and the judge will have to determine what the agreement actually said.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Anarres (profile), 31 Jul 2016 @ 7:17am

      Re: LoC disagrees with Highsmith

      The instrument of gift is this:
      http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2250&context=historical

      Yes, it will be a problem. Notice that it says sometimes she gave copyrights to the public, and then that she will be credited, and the library has restrictions on reproduction.

      I expect the judge will have to rule on what the agreement really means.

      The amazing part here is that Carol Highsmith still has standing to sue according to DMCA 1203, which says that "any injured person can sue", for false copyright management information. Even if the judge rules that the collection is in the public domain, she has been injured by Getty fraudulently chasing people down over her donated work.

      Incidentally, I think the Techdirt should pay attention to the agreement, and post about it. The article assumes the copyright situation is clear and believes the complaint allegations fully, but this agreement will be problematic.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2016 @ 9:18pm

    Note, incidentally, that criminal copyright infringement (17 U.S. Code § 506, 18 U.S. Code § 2319) is a Federal RICO predicate offense (18 U.S. Code § 1961).

    Were I a member of the relevant US Attorney's Office, I would certainly consider throwing a few subpeonas in Getty's direction to check if there was any "willful infringement . . . for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain".

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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