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Copyright Law for Newspapers

Copyright Law for Newspapers

This presentation deals with the practical copyright areas newspapers face every day -- especially in deciding on whether they can use photos and information found on social media.

Transcript

  1.  Copyright attaches to works of authorship at moment of

    creation  Text, audio, photo, video, architecture, etc.  Must be original, typically “novel” as well  How about a tweet? A YouTube video?  Even memes – original photo use isn’t free  Minimum damages: $750 per infringing use  Often 3x to 30x assessed  Example: AFP v. Morel (SDNY 2013), $1.2 million for Haiti earthquake photos  Terms: Copyright basically lasts 70 years after life of author
  2.  Daniel Morel, freelance photographer, shot Haiti earthquake & posted

    photos on Twitter  Another guy took the photos, said they were his own, sold license to AFP & Getty Images  Morel notified AFP, Getty, etc., but they didn’t take down from wires  AFP argues they were third party under Twitter Terms of Service  Morel sues & wins $1.2 million
  3.  Good news: One of the exceptions specifically listed in

    copyright law for fair use is “news purposes”  Others: research, scholarship, education  Bad news: That just qualifies you for further fair use analysis under courts’ 4-part test:  Purpose of the secondary work (profit, non?)  Is it “transformative”  Nature of the original work (fact, fiction?)  Amount and substantiality of the use  Effect on the marketplace of original
  4.  Former President Gerald Ford wrote memoirs in 1977 

    Publishers Harper & Row signed exclusive deal with Time to publish 7,000-word excerpt (for $50,000)  The Nation got a leaked copy and wrote a 2,250-word article  beat Time to article by a few weeks
  5.  Purpose of use  News reporting -- commercial, non-profit?

     Nature of original work  Fact or fiction?  Amount/substantiality of portion used  300 words of 200,000 word manuscript?  The heart of the book?  Impact on market?  “right of first publication”
  6.  Fair use defense generally doesn’t extend to publicity/commercial uses

     So, I found this photo on Facebook…  OK to repost on same platform (retweet, e.g.) or if using same API (Storify)
  7. Rule 1: Make it yourself Rule 2: If you didn’t

    make it yourself, get permission or buy a license Rule 3: Share, don’t take
  8.  The DMCA creates a takedown procedure for copyrighted material

    shared online without a license  If it’s yours, you can send a note to the web host to remove your work from the site  If they don’t, you can sue both poster and site  If you post something that someone else has a copyright in without permission, they can ask for a takedown as well  Should do in good faith. See Lenz v. Universal.  This does not replace infringement – can still sue and be sued under regular © law