Run-DMC copyright ruling partially reversed by US appeals court

A copyright lawsuit between a photographer and merchandise company Live Nation, which surrounds pictures of hip-hop band Run-DMC, has been partially reversed at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The case concerns photographs of the band taken by Glen Friedman that were used by Live Nation on t-shirts and calendars without permission.

Friedman took the photos in the 1980s and in 2005 granted a licence to Sony Music to reproduce some of them.

Live Nation produces its own style guides—collections of images that are available to use on merchandise. Included in the guides were “a number of Friedman’s images”.

After a previous ruling handed down at the US District Court for the Central District of California the court granted a summary judgment in favour of Live Nation which said that, although the organisation had infringed Friedman’s copyright, the infringement had not been wilful.

But in a ruling handed down on August 18 Judge Marsha Berzon reversed the wilful part of the ruling.

She said: “Live Nation submitted evidence showing that it knew it needed to take special care with respect to Friedman’s images.”

According to the court document, a Live Nation employee sent an email about Friedman’s images saying “we do not want to use any Glenn Freidman [sic] Photos for Run-DMC[.] [H]e owns all the rights to his photos and is really not interested in using them for [m]erchandise”.

Live Nation claimed that the email proves it took “active steps” with regard to Friedman’s images.

But Berzon rejected the claim, adding: “We therefore conclude that, drawing all inferences in Friedman’s favour, the evidence in the record gave rise to a triable issue of fact as to Live Nation’s wilfulness, and we reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment”.