Court Rules Against Photographers in Copyright Suit

An anonymous reader writes "Photo District News Online reports a Federal District Court in NY says that republishing Magazine content on a CD is the same as republishing the magazine itself. Photographers claim they should recieve additional compensation for images published on the CD that were published in the orginal magazine articles. IANAL but there is some additional interesting case history in the article as well."

Comments

I sympathize with both sides...

[dtobias]

This is a case where I can see both points of view. As a consumer, I very much like the availability of complete collections of periodicals in electronic form. (I have the complete Mad Magazine CD-ROM set, for instance.) A ruling that freelance contributors have to give permission and get royalties on such a republication would make it nearly impossible to publish such a thing for magazines that go back many decades unless their contents were entirely "work for hire" owned by the publisher; even if they could afford all the royalties (which would make the collections exorbitantly expensive), the recordkeeping would be a nightmare, and they probably don't even know how to get in contact with freelancers or their heirs from long ago (but due to the copyright term extension, things stay copyrighted as long as 95 years or more now).

On the other hand, if I were a creator of material published on such a magazine, I'd want to be properly compensated if it became part of a lucratively-marketed collected work; I'd probably have been paid a relatively small amount in the first place based on its use being ephemeral (in the context of a periodical) rather than the larger amount I'd expect for permanent rights to something that would remain in print.

This issue is really one which needs to be addressed via contract, and it probably is for new freelance material these days now that publishers have such uses in mind and probably have a clause specifically about them. This, however, doesn't settle the issues regarding past material created before either the creator or the publisher had any idea of modern electronic uses, hence all the litigation. Similar issues occur with DVD collections of TV series, where it's often in doubt who requires permission and compensation for everything from actors' residuals to music rights.

Re: Mirrors ?? You're KIDDING me, right?

[Crypto Gnome]

er, I think the point the law-types were trying to make was...

Whether it's printed on Dead Trees(tm) or pitted into polycarbonate discs, as long as it's the same content, then they're just publishing the magazine.

So, as long as it is:

• same content
• same publisher (ie the one who's already paid for the right to publish)

The fact that it's purely a different physical medium is totally irrelevant.

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So back to your point about mirroring websites.... Well, this all centers around an existing right-to-publish. Do you have that? If so , then sure, mirror the website. If not, they you're in flagrant breach of copyright, and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.