Photographer Wins $588 in Court, Al Gore’s Current TV Wants It Back

San Francisco-based Ken Light’s photograph of wrongly convicted prisoners used on Current TV’s website for several weeks without his permission and with no due consideration for the fact that the copyright belonged to him. Light then proceeded to take the case to the small claims court and received a compensation of $588 to cover his legal costs and the fee he should have received for use of his work. And there is where you would think the story ends. Alas, Current TV has decided to show its muscle against what it considers a puny opponent and they have raised the matter in an appeal to San Francisco’s Superior Court, showing its willingness to slug it out to bring down Light’s claims, despite the additional costs involved.

Really, if Al Gore’s Current TV wants to play bully on the playground, it should pick someone its own size. And photographers, beware! Your art can quickly turn into murky legal battles if you don’t pre-empt any copyright stealing intentions.

A Freelance Photographer vs The New York Times

And if you thought only digital works were most likely to have their copyright infringed, here’s a shocker for you. In a high-profile case of a freelance photographer calling out on NYTimes’ dubious claims to ownership of a politically and historically valued photograph, George Zimbel is forced wrangle his work back from the publication. The detailed correspondence on the matter has been well-documented on this page, where George publishes the email exchange between himself and the legal advisers who discussed the case on behalf of NYT. Many of us would also recognise this image of the Kennedy’s; this is a timely reminder to all freelancers to lay claim to ownership of your intellectual property early on in the game – it gets harder to claw it back over time!