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Jerry Greenberg and National Geographic

More good legal news for ASMP members and other photographers: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has just rejected Ken Starr's petition on behalf of National Geographic in the copyright infringement lawsuit by Jerry Greenberg against National Geographic for its unauthorized use of his photos on Geographic's CD-ROM. This means that Geographic's only hope for overturning the ruling that they infringed Jerry's copyrights is if they can convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case in the first place, and then to rule in Geographic's favor and reverse the 11th Circuit. The chances of both of those things happening look slim. ASMP has been playing an active role in this case and in supporting Jerry since the beginning.

Any photographers who have published photographs in National Geographic should take a careful look at their contracts (of which there are many variations) and see if Geographic appears to have violated their rights when it reproduced and distributed every one of its issues on CD-ROM. You may have a valid infringement claim waiting to be made. ASMP will keep you posted.