The big battle over application of the fair use defense has been focused on the highly subjective, often confusing, doctrine of “transformativeness,” which is addressed under factor one of the four-factor test. Factor one considers the purpose of the use, including whether the purpose is commercial; and over the past decade or so, several high-profile defendants have sought to broaden ...
I understand pursuing a fair use defense in a copyright case when the user of a work does something new and creative and believes there is a plausible argument to be made. I also understand why copyright skeptics file amicus briefs seeking opinions that would change the fair use doctrine. But what I find astonishing is the professional, who makes ...
Jeff Sedlik has been a fine art and commercial photographer for over 30 years and has served as an expert witness in more than 400 copyright cases. But until celebrity tattoo artist Katherine Von Drachenberg (Kat Von D) inked his famous portrait of Miles Davis in 2017, he had never been in court as a plaintiff claiming infringement of his ...
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), wrote an open letter to Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri telling him to stop using a photograph on tee shirts and other campaign merchandise. You know the photo. The one of Hawley raising a fist of solidarity to a mob of knuckle-dragging seditionists shortly before many of them stormed the ...
Not that I have any delusions about the reach of this blog, but for what it’s worth, here’s a pro-tip for celebrities everywhere about sharing photographs of yourselves on social media: if you don’t own the rights in the image, don’t post it. This keeps happening. A celebrity posts an image of himself, the photographer who owns the rights in ...
