Cruz Law, PLLC

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I will be presenting at the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Conference July 19

I am happy to report that I will be presenting this week on “Legal Issues for Writers” at the annual Pacific Northwest Writer’s Conference on Saturday, July 19th.  I will be discussing a variety of issues that writers may face including copyright, trademarks, right of publicity, how to market yourself without getting sued and other topics.  The link to the PNWA conference for my day is here.

Franchisees file lawsuit over $15 minimum wage ordinance

My latest article in the NW Asian Weekly covers the controversial new law in the city of Seattle which mandates that businesses ramp up the wages to hourly workers to $15 per hour.  Some local franchisees are angered by the ordinance as franchises are allegedly being treated as big businesses which equates to franchised businesses like Subway needing to pay a workforce of 8-10 workers $15 per hour sooner than “mom and pop” type businesses.  The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington.  We will keep tabs on this as it progresses.

Remember to follow the Bylaws of your nonprofit

I recently penned an article in the Northwest Asian Weekly about the battle for a Vashon Island landmark, the Mukai House and Garden.  Late last year, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a trial court ruling which dismissed a lawsuit by competing nonprofits seeking control of the landmark.  The legal issue concerns whether a meeting was held pursuant to its bylaws.

Via the Northwest Asian Weekly:

The lawsuit was based on whether a June 2013 meeting was rightfully called to oust Matthews, Happy, and other officers in charge of Island Landmarks. According to court documents, Matthews and Happy “personally advanced more than $300,000 to pay the operating expenses of Island Landmarks, including real property taxes, utilities, insurance, and labor to maintain the house and garden.”

The attorney for Matthews and Happy contend that the Friends of Mukai did not follow the rightful process described in the bylaws in calling the meeting to vote on dismissing the officers. Originally, the Friends of Mukai had its claims dismissed. However, in late December, the appeal granted new life for the organization and its claims.

The underlying story is an interesting battle between two groups wishing the best care of a unique historical property.  But the lesson to learn here is that when on a nonprofit board or a member of a nonprofit, it is the best practice to follow the Bylaws in accordance with the nonprofit.  Even though rules for meetings may seem mundane, it must be followed or else the happenings of the meeting may be overturned.  If you are on a nonprofit board and have questions, Cruz Law, PLLC has experience in advising nonprofits.

Who owns Ellen’s “selfie”?

Here are a couple interesting articles as to who owns Ellen’s “selfie”? Here and Here.

If you didn’t know, the above picture was the most Retweeted tweet/pic in the history of the social media platform. It actually crashed the site. So the question that has come up among lawyers is who owns the picture?

Actor Bradley Cooper took the picture, but Oscar show host Ellen DeGeneres uploaded the picture from her twitter account. Usually the original content creator (Cooper) would hold the copyright. But, DeGeneres does have an argument since she was the one with the idea for the “selfie” and posted the picture. Then, there’s the issue of whether the actual phone used would have a right to the picture. Without too much of an exhaustive discussion on this, its unlikely unless the content creators had a contract regarding copyright.

The first issue is to look at the Twitter terms of service since that was the method in which the photograph was distributed. According to this Poynter article, the twitter account holder has the right to post, submit or display on its platform. Certainly, if you copy and paste the photo from Twitter and use it for another use, you may have to look for permission especially if its for commercial use. A case last year saw a photographer win a lawsuit against a news agency (and settle with several others) as a result of the news agencies not seeking proper permission. So, as posted here, the photo has not been taken out of its native form.

The best practice, as always, is to ask for permission. This never hurts and so long as there is proper attribution, the copyright holder will usually allow the use. The other best practice is to check with the terms of use for the social media platform you utilize to see who owns what. If you have any other questions regarding social media, you may speak with a social media lawyer.

Photographer is awarded $1.2M in copyright infringement case

A Federal Court in New York found in favor of Haitian photographer Daniel Morel in a prolonged fight over photos he took of the Haiti earthquake in January 2010.

A jury found that Agence France-Presse and Getty Images willfully infringed upon Morel’s copyright of 8 pictures he took of the earthquake and that he sent out via Twitpic on Twitter.  The jury awarded Morel $1.22 million.

According to a New York Times article, Morel claimed that Getty Images and AFP sold his exclusive photos for $45.

Morel’s Twitpics of the earthquake were retweeted by Lisandro Suero who indicated that the photos were his.  As such, AFP distributed them to clients and Getty Images distributed the photos in the U.S.

Prior to the Court rendering its decision, Morel had settled with The Washington Post, ABC, CBS and others that used his images without authorization.

The jury determined whether the infringement had been “willful” by AFP and Getty Images and the amount of damages.

The case supports the rights of photographers and provides clarity of the rights to use of photographs in the age of social media.  AFP had sued Morel seeking a declaratory judgment to show it had not infringed Morel’s copyright.  It cited Twitter’s terms of service arguing that it had granted a license to use his TwitPics.  However, the terms of service grants Twitter only as granting a license to use the photographs.  Thus, anyone seeing the photos on Twitter or any subsequent retweets of the photos would not have a license to use the photographs.

While this case has many details to it, the big takeaway is that photographers that post photos on social media sites like twitter should look at the “terms of service” for the social media platform.  It is likely that you are giving a license to the social media provider but not any of its users.  Moreover, the Morel case is a win for photographer’s rights.  In a time when social media is a way to obtain and disseminate information, there are still protections out there to ensure that your intellectual property is not taken.

The court case filed in the US District Court Southern District of New York is Agence France Presse v. Daniel Morel