A quick update to this case....
Infringement Suit Against AP, Getty Images Approaches Settlement
A copyright infringement case against Associated Press and Hellman & Friedman’s Getty Images is near settlement, according to an Aug. 22 court filing.
Patricia Ann Lopez, an artist who specialized in courtroom sketches, sued the two entities in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, in April. She claimed they made use of some of her courtroom sketches without authorization and compensation.
The artist, based in Okhay Owingeh, New Mexico, has covered a number of significant trials in federal court in which cameras are not permitted. Among the trials where she’s served as a sketch artist are the 1998 trial of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2001 murder trial of Andrea Yates, and the 2005 Abu Ghraib-related court martial trials.
She says she maintains the copyrights to her drawings and licenses them to the media, while retaining future rights.
In her court filing she said AP and Getty had been offering for sale or license “hundreds” of her drawings, charging as much as $12,000 for a one-month license.
The two defendants never filed answers to her complaint. In a request for an extension of the deadline for them to respond, counsel for Lopez said that settlement discussions are underway. According to that filing, the artist “believes such negotiations are more likely to prove fruitful if they can be conducted prior to defendants being required to prepare and file answers.”
The request was unopposed by counsel for AP and Getty. The court responded in an Aug. 24 filing, granting the request for extension and saying the reasons for seeking the later date were “meritorious.”
Topic: Karma is a wonderful thing (Read 5970 times)