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Student Photographer Threatened With Suspension For Sports Photos

Posted by timothy on from the you-belong-to-the-state dept.

sandbagger writes: Anthony Mazur is a senior at Flower Mound High School in Texas who photographed school sports games and other events. Naturally he posted them on line. A few days ago he was summoned to the principal's office and threatened with a suspension and 'reporting to the IRS' if he didn't take those 4000 photos down. Reportedly, the principal's rationale was that the school has copyright on the images and not him.

3 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. Unless it was part of a contract..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Unless photography rights was part of a contract (either student handbook or admission ticket), the principal is smoking crack and has no claim to them.

    That said, the kid is probably a minor and can not enter into binding contracts without parental consent.

  2. Re:Force his hand..."Sue me! Sooner than later..." by taustin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you bothered to read the article, or the summary above, you might notice that there's no threat of a lawsuit, only of a suspension. The burden (and expense) of filing a lawsuit would be on the kid (and his parents). And while they might win, odds are, they couldn't possibly hope to recover the $100k+ in legal fees.

  3. Re:Force his hand..."Sue me! Sooner than later..." by FranTaylor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    there's no threat of a lawsuit, only of a suspension.

    if there is no threat of a lawsuit, which is the only legal mechanism that the school can use to have the pictures taken down, then the school would not have threatened the kid with suspension. The suspension is not a legal relief for the posting of the photographs, a lawsuit is.