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.
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."
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.
It's always nice when we stumble across a copyright case that doesn't lead to wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, rare as that might be. So when we ran across the news that a photographer pulled in $1.6 million in a copyright lawsuit, we just had to share it.
Seven sports photographers are suing the National Football League, Getty Images and the Associated Press in a complex case that argues the agencies went too far in allowing their images to be freely used for promotions by the league.
The National Press Photographers Association has decided to throw their hat in the ring with 15 other organizations that are all suing Google over what they see as "widespread, well-publicized, and uncompensated infringement of exclusive rights" perpetrated by the search giant's Google Books program.