Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Joichi Ito <jito AT neoteny.com>]

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.