On May 05 (not quite Star Wars Day!) the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a district court order that previously dismissed a lawsuit over photographs of the production of various Star Wars movies that were captured by famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz.
The original lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Great Bowery Inc, the company behind licensing agency Trunk Archive, which was said to hold "exclusive worldwide representation to license her [Leibovitz] photographs."
The copyright infringement suit was filed against Consequence Sound LLC and later Consequence Media Group Inc, regarding the unauthorized usage of some of Leibovitz’s Star Wars photographs on Consequence.
The district court’s reasoning for dismissing Great Bowery’s suit appears to stem from the perceived exclusivity of its image rights.
The court documents reveal that Annie Leibovitz retained some rights over the imagery, which the district court identified as a point of conflict, ultimately ruling that Great Bowery didn’t have exclusive worldwide rights while Leibovitz retained her own rights.
But the court of appeals has concluded that “the district court’s understanding of copyright law was not quite right,” and has thus overturned the decision.
My main takeaway from the court documents is that while Great Bowery doesn’t possess all of the rights to the works in question, it does have exclusive worldwide access to the rights that it’s been given, as stated in the following passage:
"A plaintiff does not need to be the owner of all the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright; it only needs to be the owner of 'that particular right' which the defendant has allegedly infringed."
It’s important to note that the court of appeals has only reversed the district court’s decision and paved the way for a revival of the original dispute.
Time will tell whether this is case really does have any force or if it's just a phantom menace…
You might also like...
See where Annie Leibovitz ranks among the best photographers ever. And if you're a fan of her work (who isn't?) then you'll likely be interested in the best lenses for portraits and the best cameras for portraits. Plus, here are the best photography lighting kits.
