A Florida court's refusal to dismiss a commercial photographer's claim of copyright infringement is the latest reminder that not every photo posted on Facebook necessarily was put there legally -- and it's not legal to "borrow" without the rightful owner's consent.G.
Tag: copyright
The grizzly truth about copyright law and student photographs
If you have Internet access, if you know somebody with Internet access, if you've been standing near somebody with Internet access -- then you've already seen, probably multiple times, the Viral Falling Bear Picture.It's a superb moment-captured shot, the work of a Colorado student photographer, Andy Duann, who (as he describes in this interview) hustled without even taking time to put on socks, to be in exactly the right spot when agents from the state Parks and Wildlife Department tranquilized the campus interloper and caught him in a net.But getting a 200-pound-bear out of a tree may be simple compared with unscrambling the ownership issues that have arisen concerning the photo.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Don’t take “no” for a public-records answer — and don’t take “copyright,” either
On occasion, people in positions of public authority know "just enough law to be dangerous" -- not enough to actually get the answer right, but enough to convince themselves that they have, because the answer has lots of authoritative-sounding words in it.This is the story of one such occasion.Recently, the SPLC attorney hotline received what started out as an unremarkable call from a college journalist whose request to a government agency for public records was denied.
“Where can I get celebrity photos on the Internet?” Today, there’s one more answer.
In the everything's-free, share-and-share-alike culture of the Web, it often comes as a surprise and a disappointment to students that celebrity photos on news organizations' websites are valuable copyright-protected property.Students want to talk and write about Rihanna and Li'l Wayne and (for some unearthly reason) Kim Kardashian, and they need illustrations to accompany their stories.
Registering your yearbook’s copyright
These directions will help you register a yearbook using the Electronic Copyright Office (eCO).
Marking a tragic anniversary: News organizations can find free-to-use 9/11 images with a little creative searching
America is approaching a grim anniversary that is no cause for celebration -- 10 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 -- and many journalistic organizations, including campus ones, will be looking for the right images from the tragedy to accompany their coverage.This is an excellent reminder that, while journalists should always assume that material they find online is copyright-protected property and may not be indiscriminately reused, the Internet does offer some copyright-safe refuges.The first is material created by federal government employees as part of their employment.
Is high school football a news event or a commodity?
High school football games are played on publicly subsidized fields, and organized by publicly salaried coaches and athletic directors.
Work for hire? A guide to the legal issues involved when student journalists become ‘employees’
Each day throughout the country, thousands of college students show up for work at the newsroom or the broadcast station.
Back to School Checklist: Who owns what?
Who owns the copyright to work created by a student journalist? It’s a fascinating, important — and potentially complicated question.
Back to School Checklist: Evaluating your staff’s ‘media-law radar’
For better or worse, knowledge of the law continues to be an ever-growing part of the skill set required of all journalists, including students.One fairly quick -- and mostly painless/sometimes entertaining -- way to check how much your students/staff know about media law as they head back to the newsroom is to direct them to the SPLC's Test Your Knowledge of Student Media Law quiz series.