New York Judge Rules That Photos Posted On Twitter Are Not Up For Grabs By News Organizations

The result could determine how all intellectual property rights on social media are viewed. A judge in New York City has ruled that pictures taken by a freelance photographer and posted on his Twitter account were not available for use by news organizations. Daniel Morel, who had been working in Haiti following the earthquake there in 2010, sued both Agence France-Press and The Washington Post after he discovered the news organizations had used photos he took following the disaster without asking his permission. Both AFP and the Post argued that once the images had appeared on Twitter they were available to anyone, but Judge Alison Nathan's ruling says that Twitter's terms of service didn't allow publication without the photographer's permission. The ruling partially grants Morel's motion for a summary judgment but leaves several other issues in the case to be decided at trial. It'...