Eiselein vs Buzzfeed Inc
In this law case, a photographer named Kai Eiselein, sued Buzzfeed for
copyright infringement. This photographer sued Buzzfeed for 3.6 million dollars for supposedly lifted one of his images “knowingly and willingfully.” The image that was taken was of a female soccer player getting bonked in the head by a soccer ball. Buzzfeed then used this picture in their listicle, “30 Funniest Header Faces”, which was posted on their website. Now Eislein sent BuzzFeed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice on May 26, 2011. The picture remained on their website for 2 years after this notice was sent, and the lawsuit mentions that the photo was shared to other 63 other websites, which most appear to be personal blogs. On Buzzfeeds half, In an interview with the Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal last year, BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti argued that such usage is “transformative,” and therefore protected under the Fair Use doctrine of copyright law (the idea being that BuzzFeed listicles create something entirely new from the photos used within them). Eislein states that Buzzfeed using this picture is not transformative in any way, nor is it good for creative photographers such as him, since these photos do not have links to the actual person who took the picture. In the end, the case was dismissed by the court, and forgotten. Now in my opinion, i think getting the picture down was enough because unless the photographer was actually selling this photo, their is no need to ask for money for a picture he just wanted people to know he took. Of course the company itself needs to make sure the pictures they use are free or the photographer is fine with using them.
