Photography Copyright Law

Digital Photography Infringement Laws and Business Trends

PDNOnline covers the law and legal developments relating to the professional photography industry from multiple angles, including copyright statutes and case law, copyright infringement, copyright registration issues, copyright legistlations, fair use exceptions and the four tests that courts apply to determine fair use, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, model releases, rights of publicity and rights of privacy, as well as specific cases that impact photographers' intellectual property rights and business decisions. In news stories related to law and photography, PDNOnline explains the legal principles behind important cases including the landmark copyright ownership case CCNV v. Reid; noteworthy fair use cases such Rogers v. Koons, Kelly v. Arribasoft, Prince v. Cariou, and Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures, and LaChapelle v. Rihanna; model release cases including Messenger v. Gruner + Jahr, Kennis v. Vampire Weekend and Tod Brody; numerous infringement cases including the landmark Tasini v. New York Times case, as well as Kaplan v. The Stock Market (distinguishing between ideas that cannot be copyrighted and executions of ideas, which can), Associated Press v. Shepard Fairey, AFP v. Morel, Greenberg v. National Geographic; landmark right of privacy and right of publicity cases including landmark decisions in Arrington v. New York Times and Finger v. Omni Publications, as well as several high profile cases involving the Marilyn Monroe estate and the estates of Sam Shaw, Milton Greene and other photographers.

PDNOnline covers stat and federal legislative efforts, successful or not, to extend the duration of copyrights, extend protection to celebrities to control the use of their likeness, and amend copyright registration requirements to make it easier for photographers to protect their copyrights.