Scrambling for Copyright Infringement Defenses

Violent Hues Productions published a tourism guide that used a stock photograph depicting the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington D.C. The problem is Violent Hues used it without the permission of the photographer, Russell Brammer.

Russell sued Violent Hues. The District Court originally sided with Violent Hues saying that Violent Hues didn’t infringe because the photograph was used for “informational” purposes. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision to the relief of photographers everywhere. The Fourth Circuit rejected all of the defenses brought up by Violent Hues including, some flimsy excuses like, it was an innocent mistake and its use didn’t stop the photographer from licensing it to others. Violent Hues’ fair use defenses didn’t get anywhere. Violent Hues tried to make the case for “transformative use” because it cropped and only used half of the photograph. That doesn’t fit into the definition of transformative use. The Fourth Circuit Court’s opinion was scathing in its rebuke of Violent Hues’ defenses by holding that “fair use is not designed to protect lazy appropriators”.

**WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS. ** Finding a photograph on the Internet is easy. But using it can have harsh results. When using content from the Internet, the default should always be that the work belongs to someone and you need their permission to use it. If you need stock photographs, there are numerous stock photo websites that will license the use. The license fee is substantially less then expensive and time consuming copyright infringement litigation.