Five Nightmare Photography Court Cases

This article lists five photography court cases that have to do with copyright infringement, rigth of publicity and defamation. I have listed them below with a brief description of each. Too read the full article go here.

1. Lara Jade Coton Vs. Bob Burge and TVX Films - Coton, who if 14 years old, took a provocative self-portrait shot of herself and placed it on deviantART protected with a watermark and copyright symbol. She later found her image was put on the cover of a porn film called "Body Magic."

2. Flickr member sues Virgin Mobile after appearing in an Australian ad - I previously posted and entry about this story and the title really explains it all.

3. Corbis Sued For Losing Photos - Freelance photographer Chris Usher signed up to Corbis to supplement his sales to Time, Newsweek and other major publications. He asked for his images back when he grea dissappointed at Corbis' licensing deals and billing practices. Unfortunatley, Corbis lost, or misplaced as they put it, a large majority of his photos.

4. Passer-By Sues Philip-Lorca diCorcia for Selling his Photo - Philip-Lorca diCorcia took some photos of people walking down the street in New York in a public place. He placed the photos in an exhibition and sold them as prints. He was then sued by Emo Nussenzweig, who appeared in one of the photos and considered the sale an invasion of privacy.

5. Goosed Farmer Seeks $7.5 Million in Damages for Photo - Non-commercial photographer John Burwell took a photo of poultry farmer Andrew Marsinko with a goose on his knee. Burwell then submitted the image to Jupitermedia who licensed it to a company called Leanin' Tree. Leanin' Tree then used the photo on the cover of a greeting card. Marsinko sued Burwell, his wife, Jupitermedia, Getty Images and Leanin' Tree for defamation, unauthorized use of a picture, conspiracy and reckless infliction of emotional distress. Marsinko claims that he never signed a model release form.