AFP and Getty to pay $1.2 million for using Twitter photos without permission

At the beginning of this year a US district judge ruled that several news organizations were liable for infringing on the copyrights of photographer Daniel Morel, after they used images posted on Twitter without permission — now they've been ordered to pay. Both the Agence France-Presse and Getty Images will have to pay Morel a total of $1.2 million for their part in the situation. It all began when an AFP editor found several photos of the 2010 Haiti earthquake on Twitter, which were originally taken by Morel, and then distributed them to Getty. The AFP had previously argued that the photos were open to commercial reuse, but Judge Alison J. Nathan disagreed, as did Twitter itself.

via Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/23/5136702/afp-getty-to-pay-for-using-twitter-photos-without-permission