Photography and the law

       I have found a bunch of differnet articles about photgraphy and the law. The one that interset me the most was the one about Daniel Morel. He had won 1.2 million dollars, from two compines, Agence France-Presse and Getty Images. 
   
  Daniel Morel  had taken pictures of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake had hit. He then posted his pictures to his twitter account.  
   
   An Agence France- Presse reporter found his photos of Hatit on a twitter account and sent the 
pictures to Getty Images and thier clients, alos to the Washington Post, CNN, ABC and CBS. Daniel Morel founs out about the picture, but didn't file a lawsuit. Instead he filed a claim saying that Agence France-Presse had willfully infringed his copyrights. The Agence France- Presse responded by filing a lawsuit in 2010 against Daniel Morel, saying that they wanted him to rescind his claims that the agency willfully infringed on his copyrights. Daniel Morel then filed a counter lawsuit. In January the judge claimed that Agence France-Presse and Getty Images were liable for  infringement. Agence France-presse arguede that twitters term of service premitted the use of Morel's photos. It is true (retwerting), however it did not allow anyone other then the photography to use it for cormicial use. Daniel Morel was then awarded the maximin statutory penalty available under the copyright act, 1.2 million dollars. According to Agence France-presse they had aksed that awrad to set that high. 
     
     I definilty agree with the outcome. Just because somone post a picture on twitter, facebook or instragram no one has the right to sell it or use it for commicial use, except for the photographer. 

http://www.pdnonline.com/news/Morel-v-AFP-Copyrig-9598.shtml    
http://www.epuk.org/News/1045/follow-the-daniel-morel-vs-afp-and-getty-images-trial-with-epuks-daily-reports