UPDATE: Freelance Photog Wins $1.2m in Copyright Infringement Case

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A federal jury last Friday in the case of Agence France Presse et al. v. Morel (Case No. 10-cv-02730) awarded Haitian-born freelance photographer Daniel Morel $1.2 million damages in his copyright infringement suit against Agence France Presse and Getty Images, Mashable.com reported.

Morel had alleged that the defendants used without permission photos he had taken and posted on Twitter depicting devastation to his homeland after a 2010 earthquake. U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan last January granted, in part, a summary judgment motion in Morel's favor on his claim that Twitter's terms of service did not grant a license to the defendants to reproduce his images without his permission (see "TUOL" post 1/16/13).

Getty Images had distributed Morel's photos to numerous subscribers, including The Washington Post.

New Media Law Weakens Ecuadoran Broadcast Journalism

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Ecuador's National Assembly today is expected to approve a measure proposed by President Rafael Correa that will significantly diminish the influence of private broadcast journalists, according to an article by the Agence France Presse wire service.

The proposed law will redistribute control of the South American republic's airwaves, allocating one-third shares to private media, community radio and television, and state media. Presently, private media dominates, with shares of 85 percent in radio and 71 percent in television, the AFP article reported.

Correa, who aggressively has sued journalists and news organizations under the country's slander laws (see "TUOL" post 2/17/12), has ruled Ecuador since 2006, and his party, in last month's election, gained an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

Under the proposed media law, a new regulatory agency would be created to sanction and fine organizations that refuse to correct published information.

A Yen for Autocomplete: Google Ordered to Pay Japanese Libel Plaintiff

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Multinational Internet services giant Google, Inc. has been ordered to pay a Tokyo plaintiff 300,000 yen ($3,057) in damages arising from his defamation and invasion of privacy claims, Agence France Presse ("AFP") and Cnet.com reported this week.

The culprit, according to the plaintiff's suit, is the Mountain View, Calif.-based Google's autocomplete function, which he alleged would link him to crimes he did not commit when Google users would begin typing his name in a search. The plaintiff, who was not identified, alleged he lost his job and has been unable to obtain employment since because of the negative autocomplete output.

Although Judge Hisaki Kobayashi did not conclude Google's autocomplete was to blame for the plaintiff losing his job, the judge did find a "situation has been created by which illegally submitted documents can easily be viewed."

It's doubtful whether Google will have to face the music because, as the AFP article noted, Google has no Japan-based data center, as it does in Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, so the Japanese Court's ability to exert influence is in doubt. For its part, Google argues autocomplete results are automatically generated and beyond its control.

The suggest function, which offers options when search terms are entered, has previously gotten Google into trouble in defamation cases in France (see "TUOL" post 9/27/10).

Burma Shaves Press Rights in Proposed Law

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A proposed printing and publishing law submitted by Myanmar's Ministry of Information has alarmed free press advocates concerned that the Southeast Asian nation may be backtracking on its efforts to relax suppression of the news media.

According to accounts by Agence France Presse and Global Post, the proposed measure would subject members of unaccredited news organizations to a maximum six months' imprisonment, and would restrict reporting on articles that violate the ruling military junta's constitution or that cover ethnic groups' skirmishes.

The proposed legislation was published last week in Burmese state-run media. Reportedly, only half of the 17 media organizations to date that applied for daily licenses received government approval. The proposed bill appears to be a retreat by the government from relaxing constraints on the press, which included eliminating pre-publication censorship rules last August.

 "Banning news topics and legalizing the jailing of journalists is utterly inconsistent with the press freedom guarantees that authorities vowed the new law would promote," a spokesperson for the Committee to Protect Journalists lamented.

Federal Judge Backs Photog in Social Media Copyright Claim

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Alison Nathan this week in Agence France Presse v. Morel (Case No. 10-cv-02730) granted, in part, a summary judgment motion brought by a photographer who claims news organizations infringed on copyrighted images he posted on Twitter.

According to a report by the wire service Reuters, photographer Daniel Morel tweeted photos he took of the destruction caused by an earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. Defendant Agence France Presse (AFP) transmitted Morel's photos to defendant Getty Images, four of which were published on the Web site of defendant Washington Post , which subscribes to Getty, according to the court ruling.

AFP contended the photos in question were available for re-use once they were posted on Twitter, but Judge Nathan found AFP and the Washington Post infringed on Morel's copyright because the social media platform's terms of service did not grant a license to the defendants to reproduce the images without Morel's permission. The court imposed a ceiling on the amount of damages Morel could recover, did not rule on the infringement claim as to Getty Images, and left unresolved other issues for trial, a date for which has not yet been set.

The Reuters article reported that Morel countersued the defendants after AFP initially filed suit against Morel in March 2010, seeking a determination that it had not infringed on Morel's copyright. Twitter, which is not a party to the suit, takes the view that users of the service own their photographs that are posted on Twitter.

Google & France at an Impasse

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A move to require Internet search engines to pay media sites for displaying links to their content has Google threatening to bypass France's media sites from its search results, Agence France-Presse reports.

Boasting that it directs more than 4 billion clicks to French media Internet sites, Google argued that its own survival would be imperiled by having to pay for content. But Aurelie Filippetti, France's Culture Minister, is among a chorus of government officials who back legislation requiring search engines to pony up for content.

Taxing online advertising revenues was rejected by French lawmakers last year.

Twitter Fights Subpoena in Occupy Wall Street Case

Getty Images via @daylifeNew York County Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino  recently declined the defendant's motion to quash a subpoena in People v. Malcolm Harris (Case No. 2011NY080152) for lack of standing, but Agence France Presse news service reports that, backed by the ACLU, microblogger Twitter will challenge the court order to hand over user data to authorities.

Harris faced a disorderly conduct [P.L. sec. 240.20[5]] charge for his alleged involvement in an Occupy Wall Street demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge last year. Law enforcement officials issued a subpoena to Twitter seeking email information and tweets for the period from 9/15/11 to 12/31/11 for account @destructuremal, a Twitter account allegedly used by Harris.

In his decision against Harris, Judge Sciarrino said Twitter does not guarantee its users complete privacy. According to a press release by the ACLU, however, Twitter is contesting the subpoena, claiming its Terms of Service indicate that users "own" their content. The social media giant contends that compliance with the court's order would run afoul of the federal Stored Communications Act [18 U.S.C. sec. 2701-2711], a part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Restrictive Italian Law Prompts Wikipedia to Block Access to Site

Image via CrunchBaseProtesting a draft law that would require altering Website content within 48 hours without explanation based on a complaint of prejudice or bias, online encyclopedia Wikipedia has blocked access to its Italian version, the Montreal Gazette reported in an Agence France Presse wire story.

Beleaguered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government endorsed the measure that mandates content change without verification, which Wikipedia attacked as "an unacceptable limitation" on its freedom. Intended to deter details about government-sanctioned wiretaps from appearing in the press, the draft law imposes a $14,000 fine and a one-month imprisonment on journalists who violate it, according to the Gazette article.

Wikipedia objects to the law's failure to provide for a third party who could judge whether the content at issue is damaging.

Chinese Press Crackdown Doesn't Suit Hong Kong Journos

Image via WikipediaAgence France Presse and The Guardian report that Hong Kong journalists are concerned about China tightening restrictions on press freedom in the former British Colony it took over in 1997.

The 500-member Hong Kong Journalists Association cited a crackdown by China in coverage of public protests, including the arrest of a tv journalist at a recent demonstration.  The city-state has benefiited from a "one-country, two systems" arrangement, which, for example, extends press freedom to Hong Kong that is not recognized on the Mainland.

Press Groups Protest Jailing of Rwanda Journalists

Image via WikipediaThe imprisonment of Agnes Nksui, editor of the Rwandan daily, Umurabyo, and Umurabyo reporter Saidath Mukakibibi by the repressive regime of Rwanda President Paul Kagame has drawn fire from media organizations, Agence France Presse reports.

Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the incarceration of the two female journalists for defamation and inciting a breach of the peace. Nksui received a 17-year jail term and Mukakibibi was sentenced to seven years following their arrest in July 2010. Publication of Umurabyo was halted for six months, according to the AFP story.

The two journalists took President Kagame's government to task over its interpretation of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and also were critical of government officials.  The government pursued criminal prosecution of Nksui and Mukakibibi, rather than institute a disciplinary proceeding before the nation's Media High Council.  Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front party has held tight rein over the nation since 1994.

Newstand Space Available: US News & World Report Goes Digital-Only

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US News & World Report, always the "show" in the newsmagazine race with "win/place" competitors Time and Newsweek, will publish its last print edition in December, according to stories in Agence France Presse and The New York Times.


Over the past two years, US News has evolved from a weekly to a semi-monthly to a monthly magazine as it was not immune to falling circulation, shrinking advertising revenue, and the migration of its readers to free Internet news sites that have plagued the industry.  Newsweek was sold for a $1 to an audio magnate a couple of months ago [see "TUOL" post 8/2/10]. US News' print edition's circulation was roughly 1.2 million.

Despite its digital-only decision, US News will continue to publish print versions of its special issues ranking colleges and hospitals and other occasional special single-topic issues. News content will be free at USNews.com.  The news organization claims no editorial layoffs will be precipitated by the decision to produce an online edition alone. 

Sacre Bleu! Another European Court Sticks It to Google

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Mountain View, Calif.-based uber-search engine Google and chief executive Eric Schmidt have wound up on wrong end of a defamation lawsuit in a French court, Agence France Presse ("AFP") reports.


The court ordered Google to pay nominal damages of one euro ($1.34) and to take remedial measures to ensure its conduct not be repeated.  Google was also assessed 5,000 euros ($6,719) of the plaintiff's court costs, which the company is expected to appeal. 


Google's woes involve its Suggest function, which offers options when terms are typed into it. The case, which  is reported at the legalis.net Web site (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris 17eme chambre Judgment du 8 septembre 2010 M. X.../Google Inc., Eric S. et Google France), involved a plaintiff convicted of corruption of a minor appealing a three-year prison term, according to AFP.  When the plaintiff entered his name, the Google Suggest function purportedly elicited the words "rapist" and "satanist." Linkage of the plaintiff's name to those terms was deemed defamatory by the court.


Google is arguing that it did not initiate  those words in its Suggest function, but rather, the function yields the most common terms associated in the past with the term entered in the search. Google has previously found other European courts unfriendly, such as the Italian court that found Google liable in a criminal invasion of privacy matter (See"TUOL" post 2/25/2010).

A Lawsuit Facebook Doesn't 'Like'

Image via CrunchBaseAgence France-Presse reports that a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeks cash damages from social media behemoth Facebook for allegedly violating California law that prohibits commercially using minors to endorse products and services.


The lawsuit contends that parental or guardian consent is required before minors can click on Facebook's thumbs-up  "Like" icon to endorse online advertising content.  An attorney whose firm participated in filing the action accused Facebook of deriving illegal profits by charging advertisers for the use of minors' names and photographs. State law holds that minors cannot give legal consent.


Facebook plans vigorously to contest the lawsuit that it dismisses as meritless.

Iceland Goal: 'Fantasy Island' for Journalists?

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Agence France Presse reports that Iceland's parliament in June unanimously approved the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative ("IMMI")[http://www.immi.is], a freedom of information bill that the European island nation envisions will create the world's strongest shield to protect journalists and whistleblowers.


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is one of IMMI's biggest boosters. Iceland parliament member Birgitta Jonsdottir hopes the IMMI protection afforded investigative reporters and their confidential sources will turn Iceland into a "transparency haven" that will attract journalists to Iceland, much as countries that are tax havens draw wealthy citizens.  Jonsdottir, a self-proclaimed "anarchist" (though "TUOL" bets a krona she observes state holidays), said IMMI is a response in part to previous censorship in August 2009, when public broadcaster RUV was enjoined from airing a report on one of Iceland's largest banks that went bust a year later, helping to push the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

IMMI is expected to take effect in about a year and a half, as its enactment requires changing about 13 laws currently in force.  "TUOL" doubts that journalists will be lured to the North Atlantic Ocean kingdom, particularly if it will require them to learn how to spell Reykjavik, Raykjovic, Rakervic, never mind.