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: Cogito Ergo Teneo; an intellectual property blawg

Copyright Law: Viewfinder 060507

By Sean Fowler

Sarl Louis Fraud v. Viewfinder, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 05-5927-cv (June 5, 2007):

Issue:
Viewfinder operates a site, "FirstView," that offers photographs from various national and international fashion shows. For old fashion shows, the viewing is free. For a current subscription to the site, it costs just shy of a thousand dollars a year. The company fashions (no pun intended) itself as an online fashion magazine of sorts. French fashion companies caught wind of the site and filed suit in the French courts. the French court system found that the pictures taken of the various designers fashions (as displayed at open-air fashion shows) were unauthorized, and the court entered judgment for the designers accordingly. The designers sought enforcement in the United States, and Viewfinder made an argument to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that it's First Amendment right of freedom of press was being stepped on by the French. The court, in a single sentence, agreed that the use of the pictures by an online magazine was obviously fair use. As such, the decision of the French court was repugnant to American law and must therefore be refused enforcement. The French designers appealed.

Pertinent issue of Copyright Law:
1) Does fair use trump the foreign intellectual property judgment in this case?

Conclusion:
To be continued, evidently. The court found that the U.S. judge dealt with the issue of fair use too cursorily to have made the proper determination. Issues such as how much of the dress designs were revealed by the posted photography of Viewfinder on FirstView and what relief or protections the French government could offer Viewfinder were unanswered by the record. The decision of the district court to not enforce the judgment was vacated pending further deliberations on the fair use angle.

Full post as published by Cogito Ergo Teneo; an intellectual property blawg on November 28, 2007 (boomark / email).