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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] Distribution of picture on the internet in US-law?

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Joichi Ito <jito AT neoteny.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] Distribution of picture on the internet in US-law?
  • Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 08:49:15 +0900

A relatively recent relevant case from New York:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/arts/design/19phot.html? ex=1300424400&en=f7e05d1e10cf9b14&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

When Erno Nussenzweig, an Orthodox Jew and retired diamond merchant from Union City, N.J., saw his picture last year in the exhibition catalog, he called his lawyer. And then he sued Mr. diCorcia and Pace for exhibiting and publishing the portrait without permission and profiting from it financially. The suit sought an injunction to halt sales and publication of the photograph, as well as $500,000 in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages.

The suit was dismissed last month by a New York State Supreme Court judge who said that the photographer's right to artistic expression trumped the subject's privacy rights. But to many artists, the fact that the case went so far is significant.

The practice of street photography has a long tradition in the United States, with documentary and artistic strains, in big cities and small towns. Photographers usually must obtain permission to photograph on private property — including restaurants and hotel lobbies — but the freedom to photograph in public has long been taken for granted. And it has had a profound impact on the history of the medium. Without it, Lee Friedlander would not have roamed the streets of New York photographing strangers, and Walker Evans would never have produced his series of subway portraits in the 1940's.




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