In ruling on a motion for summary judgment in federal court in New York, Judge Katherine Forrest found that embedding a tweet containing a copyrighted photo (of Tom Brady) could create liability for copyright infringement.
The case, Goldman vs. Breitbart, is still in process and cannot be appealed until final, but the judge’s ruling has potentially far-reaching implications. She explicitly rejected the argument that the ruling could have a chilling effect on linking across the internet.
The Judge’s opinion and order (embedded below) say:
Here, it is undisputed that none of the defendant websites actually downloaded the Photo from Twitter, copied it, and stored it on their own servers. Rather, each defendant website merely embedded the Photo, by including the necessary embed code in their HTML instructions. As a result, all of defendants’ websites included articles about the meeting between Tom Brady and the Celtics, with the full-size Photo visible without the user having to click on a hyperlink, or a thumbnail, in order to view the Photo.
Getty Images backed plaintiff Justin Goldman in the case. That’s because Getty stands to directly financially benefit if Judge Forrest’s interpretation of copyright law becomes more pervasive. The company has a long history of aggressively litigating copyright claims against small publishers and bloggers.
You can read more at Search Engine Land: https://searchengineland.com/ny-federal-court-decision-threatens-embedding-linking-across-web-292324
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