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NGS Beats Infringement Rap in New York: "In a stunning rejection of the Greenberg v. National Geographic decision, a federal District Court judge in New York has ruled that the Complete National Geographic CD doesn't violate the copyrights of several freelance photographers after all.

The photographers -- Douglas Faulkner, Fred Ward, David Hiser, Louis Psihoyos and others -- filed infringement claims alleging that NGS used their work on the CD without permission. The CD reproduces back issues of National Geographic page-by-page.
The infringement claims filed in New York were similar to those filed several years ago in a Miami federal court by photographer Jerry Greenberg. Greenberg recently won a $400,000 jury award for unauthorized use of his images on the National Geographic CD.

Greenberg won that award after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled in March, 2001 that the CD was not a revision, but a 'new product, in a new medium, for a new market' since it contained a search engine and other features the magazines do not have.

Copyright law allows publishers to issue revisions of published works without permission from contributors, but not new works. The distinction is at the heart of all the lawsuits.


The photographers who sued NGS in New York argued that the CD is a new work, not a revision, and noted that the 11th Circuit ruling on Greenberg already determined that.
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