News Agencies' liberal use of Morel's photo sparked controversy
In a ruling by a Manhattan judge, news outlets illegally republished a Twitter photo taken by Daniel Morel, much to the relief of the photographer. After Morel snapped the infamous picture of quake victims in rubble, the picture spread like wildfire across the major news platforms, who believed it well within their rights to publish the photo as it was freely accessible on the internet. Morel pressed for copyright violation, and the press agencies pushed back with a suit saying Morel was engaging in "antagonistic assertion of rights". Basically, they thought he was just trying to cause a stir over his photos to get attention.
The judge effectively ruled that while re-broadcasting the content within the medium (such as retweeting) was and is legal, using the photos for commercial purposes without consent is not. As photography is possible on more and more devices as time goes on, should we be expecting more of the same? If I happen to catch a meaningful and newsworthy image with my Google Glasses, will the image be copied all over the news right before my eyes? I would hope not. As in this case, and many before and since, news stories emerge from their source to widespread media within minutes. If this trend continues, extreme vigilance will be required before uploading any image to social media.