• Posts Tagged ‘stock photography suits’

    Righthaven, the Gift that Keeps on Giving

    by  • June 25, 2014 • copyright • 1 Comment

    I’ve written before (recursive link) about copyright registrations by photo agencies. Rather than individual photographers registering their own works, it is common practice for a photo agency to periodically register the works of many photographers en masse. As described in a recent 9th Circuit opinion, the process was created collaboratively by a photography trade...

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    Four Agreements, No Standing

    by  • April 14, 2014 • copyright • 1 Comment

    Today’s post is another of the many currently-pending lawsuits by photographers against textbook publishers (recursive link) for under-reporting the number of copies of books that were published. In this case, the defendant publisher Pearson Education challenged the standing of plaintiff Viesti Associates, Inc., a stock photo agency. Viesti had four different agreements with photographers,...

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    9th Circuit Agrees with Copyright Office

    by  • March 27, 2014 • copyright • 1 Comment

    There is a rash of lawsuits brought by photographic agencies against textbook publishers, claiming that the publishers underreported the number of copies of books that were published. The publishers are fighting back and there are two main grounds for attack—that the requirements for registration were not met and that the individual photographers’ assignments to...

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    How to Do a Copyright Assignment So You Can Sue

    by  • October 8, 2013 • copyright • 2 Comments

    I’ve written before about a bunch of copyright infringement lawsuits brought by numerous photo agencies claiming that book publishers exceeded the scope of licenses granted, either by publishing in unlicensed territories or printing more copies than permitted by the license. The photo agency business model presents litigation challenges, though: only the legal or beneficial...

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    It’s Hard to Get Copyright Standing Right

    by  • March 27, 2013 • copyright • 1 Comment

    I gotta think that book publisher Pearson Education has lousy recordkeeping. I found 10 reported cases filed against it, not including this one, alleging that Pearson Education exceeded the scope of the license for photographs it uses in books. The plaintiff in Minden Pictures, Inc. v. Pearson Education, Inc. claims “that Pearson has been...

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