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| Photo: Abby Ferguson |
Integrating social media posts has turned into a common approach and an essential resource for various websites. This enables sites to display content without storing it locally, thus facilitating the presentation of more interactive material and user-created or branded assets. However, currently, a photographer is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to evaluate whether incorporating social media content infringes upon copyright laws.
As initially reported by Digital Camera World On March 28, photographer Elliot McGucken submitted a petition for certiorari as part of his legal action against media corporation Valnet, Inc., operating under the website thetravel.com. His suit stems from The Travel incorporating 36 images directly from McGucken’s Instagram postings into several articles without obtaining authorization. The crux of the argument posits that utilizing embedded content protected by copyright law without consent constitutes an act of copyright infringement.
The discussion surrounding the "server test" isn't recent; this criterion was first outlined in a 2007 ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court. This rule stipulates that when a site stores a copyrighted picture on its servers, it constitutes a breach of copyright. However, if the site incorporates content using external platforms—such as embedding posts from social media or images hosted elsewhere—it doesn’t count as infringement.
Several issues arose following the implementation of the original guidelines. Nonetheless, the latest one prior to this current situation occurred in 2023 when photographers Alexis Hunley and Matthew Brauer submitted a complaint. class-action litigation against Instagram They asserted that Instagram infringed upon their copyright by permitting Time and Buzzfeed To include images they posted on their Instagram accounts, a trio of judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that Instagram wasn’t responsible for copyright violations. They clarified that embedding a photo or video doesn’t involve making a duplicate copy.
The district courts and Ninth Circuit court have already dismissed the complaints, but the photographer has now asked the Supreme Court to weigh in. The petition gives multiple reasons for why it should be granted, one of which is that it "presents a clear legal question that has divided the federal courts." However, as VitalLaw reports , district courts in the Second, Fifth, and Tenth Circuits, as well as a federal court in Manhattan, have all dismissed this argument.
Similar to numerous other social media platforms, Instagram provides an option for users to disable embedding, thereby stopping sites from incorporating their content in such a manner. This feature was introduced by Instagram in 2021, and individuals have the ability to adjust this setting within the "How Others Can Interact With You" section of the app’s settings menu.
The Supreme Court has up to May 1 to deliver their verdict.