Legal Question in Constitutional Law in West Virginia
photo copyrights
I received a dvd of photos taken by another individual (no watermark, etc) and posted them online. Now the photographer wants them removed, citing copyright infringement????
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: photo copyrights
Then remove them. As far as I can tell you had no right to post them online.
Assuming that the photographer owns the rights to the photos, then he gets to decide who can use them and under what conditions. The fact that you received them on a DVD doesn't change this analysis -- even if the photographer approved of the DVD (he may not have) he did not approve of your decision to republish his work.
Look at it this way -- if you received a copy of a movie on DVD do you think you would have the right to post the movie online? I'm sure you wouldn't. The law treats the photos you received essentially the same way it treats movies.