IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Haitian photographer awarded $1.2 million for media companies’ willful copyright infringement, (Nov 25, 2013)
Organizations Mentioned:Agence France Presse | Getty Images, Inc. | Twitter
By Cheryl Beise, J.D.
A New York jury on Friday reached a verdict awarding Haitian photojournalist Daniel Morel maximum damages of $1.2 million for willful copyright infringement committed by French news agency Agence France Presse (“AFP”) and photo licensing company, Getty Images, Inc. (“Getty”) (Agence France Presse v. Morel, S.D.N.Y.) AFP admitted that it downloaded and distributed eight photographs Morel posted to his Twitter TwitPic account in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010.
Within hours of the earthquake, Morel blogged about it on Twitter, linking to photos he uploaded on Twitter’s image hosting site, Twitpic.com. Puerto Rican resident Lisandro Suero copied Morel’s photos and posted them as his own on his Twitpic page. AFP downloaded eight photographs from Suero’s account and transmitted them to Getty, which, in turn, licensed the photos with the attribution “AFP/Getty/Lisandro Suero” to numerous media outlets, including the Washington Post. The next day, AFP corrected the caption to credit Morel. Two days later, after being contacted by Morel’s licensing agency, Corbis, Getty and AFP took steps to remove Morel’s images and halt redistribution.
AFP filed a declaratory judgment action against Morel, seeking a declaration of noninfringement. Morel then filed counterclaims asserting that AFP, Getty, and the Washington Post willfully infringed his copyrights and violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provisions.
In January 2013, the district court granted partial summary judgment in favor of Morel, finding that AFP, Getty, and the Washington Post directly infringed Morel’s photographs as a matter of law. However, several issues— including whether the defendants acted willfully, were liable for contributory or vicarious infringement, or violated the DMCA—were argued before the jury in a seven-day trial that began on November 13. The Washington Post had settled with Morel prior to trial.
The case is 10 Civ. 02730 (AJN).
Companies: Agence France Presse; Getty Images, Inc.
News: Copyright