The film festival used the photographer's work without permission. But the court did not see any copyright infringement in this

The organizers of the Northern Virginia Film Festival found a photo on the Internet and used it without the author's permission. Photographer Russell Brammer, of course, did not like it, and he sued the film festival. However, the court's decision did not please the photographer.

The copyright fight began when photographer Russell Brammer discovered that one of his photographs taken in Washington had been cropped and used on the website of the Northern Virginia Film Festival.

Brammer turned to the organizers of the festival and asked to remove the photo from the site. The organizers granted the request and the picture was deleted. But it didn't seem enough to the photographer. He decided to sue the organizers of the festival so that they would pay him compensation.

Note that in the USA there is such a thing as "fair use" (fair use), which refers to copyright law. If certain conditions are met, you can use someone else's work, and it will not be a violation of the law. The judge concluded that Brammer's photo was used for non-commercial purposes and was only informative, besides, the organizers found the picture on the Internet and thought that it was in the public domain. The court proved that the use of the photo did not harm Brammer's commercial activities. As a result, the photographer's claim was rejected and he did not receive any compensation.

The court's decision caused controversy. Stephen Carlyle, a copyright specialist at Nova Southern University, said the court's decision could "seriously undermine the copyright protection that is provided to photographers."

This opinion was supported by lawyer David Kluft.