Yesterday morning, the company behind the 'throw-and-shoot' Lily Drone announced that they would be shutting down despite raising $34 million in pre-sales and $15 million in private funding. But their press release left one thing out: they're also being sued by the San Francisco district attorney's office.
In 2006, Leah Caldwell was eating at a Chipotle when photographer Steve Adams took her photograph. Despite the fact that he couldn't get her to sign a release, Adams sold the image to Chipotle anyway, and now the company is being sued for a whopping $2.2 billion by a very angry Caldwell.
A groom is in hot water with his new bride, a couple of former friends, and the law after his drone smacked his friends in the face during the reception. One friend claims the drone broke her nose and orbital bone, the other says she needed 20 stitches in a gash on her head, both suffered concussions.
If you're keeping track today, the score is Big Corporations: 1, Photographers: 1. Because while Carol Highsmith might have all-but-lost her epic lawsuit against Getty Images, a photographer in Germany came out on top when he took Facebook to court.
What began as one of the most explosive, publicized, and potentially ground-breaking copyright lawsuits in the world has ended in less-than-explosive terms. Carol Highsmith's $1 billion lawsuit against Getty Images has, for the most part, been thrown out of court.
The refugee-turned-photographer behind the infamous Skittles photo used by the Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, accusing the presidential candidate of infringing upon the copyright of his "iconic photograph."
If you're planning on taking a selfie with your ballot this November—whether it's to trumpet your political allegiance to the world, or just to celebrate the right to vote—hold on a second. Because if you live in one of several states, you might be committing a felony.
Belarus photographer Anton Motolko received two unpleasant surprises last week. First, he lost a seemingly straightforward copyright suit against a state-run television network; and second, he found out he lost that battle because his photo "has no artistic merit whatsoever" according to an "expert witness."
Getty Images has filed their official response to Carol Highsmith's highly-publicized $1 Billion copyright claim against the company. And the gist of the response is, in essence, "no take backsies."
A week after being slapped with a $1 billion copyright-related lawsuit, Getty Images has been served with another suit. This time it's by Zuma Press, an independent press agency that accuses Getty of infringing on over 47,000 photos.
Photographer Carol M. Highsmith rocked the copyright world this week when it was revealed she was suing Getty Images for a whopping $1 Billion over what she called "gross misuse" of 18,755 of her photographs documenting America. Today, Getty finally replied publicly to these charges.
Renowned photographer Carol M. Highsmith is reportedly suing Getty Images for $1 billion, claiming that the stock photo company committed copyright infringement through the "gross misuse" of 18,755 of her photographs documenting America.
If you've bought any photos from the "Spaghetti" or "Apples" photo agencies through Facebook lately, watch out. Getty Images is after you. The photo agency is suing a man who allegedly sold thousands of stolen "Spaghetti" (an alias for Getty) images through a Facebook group.
The messy legal battle surrounding the life's work of nanny and amateur street photographer Vivian Maier may finally be coming to a close in less than a week.
I've been wrestling with this for a while now. I wasn't going to write a post like this but things have reached a certain point where I don't feel I can take anything on any further, so for now a little social media post will have to suffice in lieu of actual justice.
Highly controversial Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is in the news a lot, but today he's making photography news. "The Donald" is being sued by two photographers who claim he has used their iconic image of a bald eagle on campaign materials for sale on the Trump website without asking permission or appropriately licensing the image.
If you've read a tabloid recently—or simply haven't been hiding beneath a rock—you've probably heard about the 'wedding photographer from hell' who showed up late, delivered bad pictures, and spent time taking selfies in the photo booth. But the drama doesn't end there.
Four portraits that, for decades, have been shown and sold as self-portraits captured by famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe are now at the center of a massive law suit by an artist who claims he shot the portraits, not Mapplethorpe.
Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, widely considered the best player ever, has filed a $30 million lawsuit against Samsung. He claims that the company used a photo of someone who looks like him for an advertisement.
The camera gear retail giant B&H is working to defend itself this month after the US government filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company -- allegations B&H calls "inaccurate" and "bizarre." In an effort to clear its name, B&H is offering the public a glimpse inside its NYC warehouses.
One of the big stories in the photo industry this month was news that the US government is suing the camera superstore B&H Photo Video for discrimination and harassment of its workers.
After initially refusing the comment to the media, B&H yesterday published a statement about the lawsuit and offered its defense. The store calls the governments claims "not only inaccurate, but bizarre."
Things haven't been going well for B&H Photo Video, one of the biggest names in the photography retail industry. Just months after being slammed with accusations of mistreatment and discrimination and seeing its workers protest and unionized, B&H is now being sued by the US government for discrimination.
Groupon is being hit with a class action lawsuit that claims the deals company has repeatedly used Instagram photos without permission from the photographers.
Backing up your data properly is a critical responsibility for digital photographers these days, but if you use certain Seagate hard drives in your setup, you may want to think about alternatives.
Seagate was hit with a class action lawsuit today by consumers who claim that the company's hard drives "failed to live up to the advertised promises" by failing and causing the loss of data.
A Muslim woman has filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press and AP photographer Mark Lennihan over a photo of her wearing a headscarf while sitting in a Starbucks. The image was sold as a stock photo and used in an opinion column that asked Muslim women not to wear the hijab.
A photographer has launched a copyright infringement lawsuit against Twitter, claiming that the social media company failed to remove a photo of hers that was posted without permission, and even after she sent multiple DMCA takedown requests to have the posts deleted.
French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen believes that an unflattering photo of him sleeping damaged his image in a recent election, and now he's suing the dancer that snapped and posted it.
It seems that there's finally some resolution in the curious legal battle between PETA and a photographer over whether a monkey owns the copyright to the viral selfies he shot back in 2011.
A federal judge in San Francisco said yesterday that he's planning to dismiss the case, ruling that the monkey cannot own the copyright to photos.
Artist Richard Prince sparked huge controversy last year by taking Instagram photos without permission, making extremely small edits to them, and then selling them as fine art for up to $100,000 each.
Now, one of the outraged photographers who had his photo used by Prince is suing the artist for copyright infringement.
44-year-old South Korean photographer Ahn Se Hong has won his lawsuit against Nikon over the cancellation of his 'comfort women' exhibition. The Tokyo District Court ruled last Friday that Nikon must pay Ahn ¥1.1 million (~$9,150) in damages.
A 68-year-old UK man has won a lawsuit against Apple after having his precious photos accidentally deleted during a repair visit to the company's Regent Street Apple Store in London.
Canon USA has filed lawsuits against a number of camera gear retailers in an attempt to stop the sale of gray market camera gear. The gray market is when a dealer imports and sells unauthorized gear that was intended for another country's camera market. The cheaper gear is legitimate, not counterfeit, but it's unauthorized and usually isn't covered by Canon's warranty.
In September, the animal rights group PETA filed a lawsuit against photographer David Slater, arguing that the monkey who took a series of viral selfies with Slater's camera in 2011 should be the rightful copyright owner.
If you thought that was strange, get this: the legal battle has now evolved into a dispute over the pictured monkey's identity and gender.
The company behind Polaroid cameras has filed a new lawsuit against GoPro, claiming that GoPro ripped off the design of Polaroid's cube-shaped action cameras by launching the GoPro Session back in July.
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) announced this week that it has joined in on a new lawsuit filed against the state of Wyoming over recent laws that criminalizes "data collecting" in "open land." Among other things, the NPPA argues that the laws put photojournalists on the wrong end of the law for legitimate work.
Remember that copyright controversy last year between photographer David Slater and the money that took selfies with Slater's camera back in 2011? PETA is joining in on the fracas.
The animal rights group filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of the monkey, a 6-year-old macaque in Indonesia named Naruto. PETA argues that Naruto is the legal copyright owner of the photos (seen above) rather than Slater, and that all proceeds from the photos should be used for the benefit of the monkey.
If you find that someone is using your photo online without your permission, one thing you can do is send a DMCA take down request to force the hosting company to remove the image. But be careful, though: you need to make sure the usage doesn't fall under fair use. Otherwise, you could be liable for sending a bad-faith take-down notice.
Photographers, be warned: if you share a photo online with a Creative Commons license that allows for commercial usage, you need to be okay with if that actually happens. A photographer named Art Dragulis just learned that lesson by losing a copyright infringement lawsuit.
California-based photographer Jeff Werner has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular website ViralNova for publishing (and profiting from) his photos without his permission.
When working with paid subjects in shoots, it's always important to have written contracts and signed releases to prove that you have permission to do what you wish with what you capture. Here's what can happen if you rely on verbal agreements...
Last year, a video of a woman being catcalled more than 100 times while walking around NYC for 10 hours went viral online, amassing over 40 million views. Now the woman is suing the creator of the video for $500,000, claiming that she never gave written permission for the video to be used before it was widely published and promoted.