An interesting offshoot of the New York Governor Eliot Spitzer scandal was the total looting of the photos from the prostitute’s MySpace site. Photo District News has a good article about the legal hurdles and ramifications news organizations may be facing from using photographs without permission or compensation.
The legal owner of the pictures of “Kristen” belongs to the photographer. That photographer has the sole copyright ownership even if the pictures are published on the Web. Typically, a news agencies will get permission to use a picture but it seems in this case the media was anxious, even zealous, to put a face to the name. They could be faced with a damage suit but they are probably willing to see if any legal actions is initiated.
The photographer has a couple of choices. The first is he can identify the news organizations who lifted his pictures and ask for compensation. Or, he could file lawsuits against the news organizations. This action has its difficulties because unless the photographer filed the photos for official copyright with the Library of Congress, he can only receive compensation for the images and not receive any punitive damages. He can still file for copyright protection but will only be able to initiate a lawsuit for any organization that continues to publish image beyond the 90 day wait period.
It’s interesting to note that the big media organizations, who are so protective of their content, are so willing to raid another’s without scruple.
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