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. TCCJ Workshop
   Chip Stewart
   Bob Schieffer College of
   Communication, TCU
   @MediaLawProf
   Oct. 9, 2015
   

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3.  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
   

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5.  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
   

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6.  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
   

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8.  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
   

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9.  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”
   

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10.  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)
    

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11. 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
    

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12.  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
    

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