All photographers should be backing Daniel Morel in his case against Agence France Presse (AFP) and Getty Images which is scheduled to begin in a Manhattan court today, Nov 12th. (I’m writing this earlier but it is scheduled to be published on the 12th.) It’s hard to imagine why either agency feels the case is worth fighting, or what can occupy the court for the six days the case is expected to last.
One of the photographers who has followed the case since the start is Jeremy Nicholl, and rather than write about it myself, I suggest you read his post from Nov 5th on his ‘Russian Photos Blog‘ with the excessively long title “A Business Model Gone Wild”: Day Of Reckoning Looms For Agence France Presse And Getty Images In Morel Copyright Theft.
As Nicholl says, the two agencies have already been found guilty of infringing copyright. The current case is about whether their clearly wilful disregard of everything we know and understand about copyright is ‘willful’ under US Law. If so, Getty and AFP could face a truly massive bill – over $27m, as well as huge costs.
I find it hard to disagree with Nicholl’s statement:
“But anyone who has followed the case can have no doubt: the behaviour of AFP and Getty has been both willful and reckless, not to mention thuggish and comically incompetent.”
and hope the court comes to that same conclusion. The two agencies – if they had any sense at the time – would have quickly come to an agreement with Morel and made him the substantial payment he deserved for their breach of his copyright, which would have cost them a lot less than the US court may decide that US copyright law provides.
The hugely punitive amounts that can be awarded under US law are perhaps hard to justify, but they do make a very clear statement about copyright, while UK law is rather weak with its idea of reasonable damages for the loss involved rather than any real disincentive against copyright theft. We may be able to get paid at a higher rate than we would have been willing to negotiate, but we don’t really get compensated for the offence against us.
But copyright remains under attack here and elsewhere, and this case is one that I think we should all back. It has too a certain irony in that Getty who are fighting against paying for their copyright offence are one of the most assiduous companies in tracking down and making often rather large claims when the copyright of their own images is abused.