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Judge Rules for National Geographic in Faulkner, et. al. vs. National Geographic

Photographers and their lawyers were stunned by a federal trial court decision issued in New York on December 11 involving the National Geographic's CD-ROM collection. A number of photographers who had licensed their images to issues of the print editions of National Geographic filed copyright infringement suits when Geographic produced the CD-ROM collection containing their images without their permission and without paying any licensing fees.

Jerry Greenberg was the first photographer to file one of these suits, and the case was litigated in Florida. In that case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that Geographic had violated Jerry's copyrights by creating and selling the digital collection without permission to use his photographs. In light of that decision, the December 11 opinion of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissing almost identical claims by photographers Douglas Faulkner, Fred Ward, David Hiser, Louis Psihoyos, and others came as a complete shock. If the NY decision becomes law, it means that publishers can make, publish, and sell digital versions of print versions of collective works without having to pay any additional licensing fees to the photographers, writers and illustrators who created the content. In a nutshell, those creators would be cut out of the loop for any part of the additional revenues that the publishers will be collecting for their digital versions.

The photographers are planning to appeal, and even though the appeals may be months or more away, ASMP is already in discussions with the photographers' attorneys regarding an amicus curiae brief for the photographers. If Geographic wins on an appeal in the 2nd Circuit, the issue could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. If you are interested in reading the full text of the lengthy decision, you can find it here.