A Texas student whose high school insisted on claiming ownership of photos he took for use in student media publications dismissed his lawsuit against school officials this week after the school district backed down and acknowledged his ownership.
In 2015, Mazur, then a student at Flower Mound (Texas) High School, was ordered by his school administration to take down a Flickr page where he was selling school sports photos to parents. Months later, the school required all members of the yearbook class to sign an agreement that the district owns the copyright to any work they produce.
Students and administrators frequently misunderstand copyright law and how it relates to student work, often leading to conflicts in schools.
The Texas school district that has asked students in the yearbook class to sign a work-for-hire agreement maintains the policy's legality, despite widespread skepticism.
Attorney advocate Adam Goldstein explains the rule's "failure" in a video. The school had previously told student Anthony Mazur he couldn't sell his photos of school sports.