Court Ruling Limits Copyright Claims

Spamicles writes "A federal appellate panel in Atlanta has reversed its circuit's 6-year-old opinion in a major copyright case, declaring the ruling's mandate on behalf of freelance photographers to be "moot." Until now, publishers could be forced to share with freelancers whenever they reproduce and sell those freelancers' previously published works in merchandise designed for computer access. The new ruling says that reproduction on a CD or other media is not a new use of formerly published issues. The full court decision (pdf) is available online, and Law.com has an analysis of the ruling's repercussions."

Comments

Re:What about Live Audio CDs

[MojoRilla]

What about audio CDs of previously performed concerts?

This is very different. This is a case there the photographer already got paid for distribution rights by National Geographic, and his work was being distributed in magazine format. He sued because they started distributing the magazines in digital format. This ruling says that the photographer isn't entitled to additional royalties. So this appears to say format shifting for publishers is OK.

In the case of CDs of previously performed concerts, the musician was never paid for distribution of the material. You can argue that he was paid for the live performance, but live performace of a work and distributing that work in recorded format seem totally different. This is much closer to a record company distributing a bands work on a CD, and later on a memory stick. This would argue that the same contract applies, because it is the same work.