Gossip Magazine's Publication of Secret Wedding Photographs Is Not Fair Use: Ninth Circuit | Practical Law
In Monge v. Maya Magazines, Inc., the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a Spanish-language gossip magazine's publication of previously unpublished photographs of a secret celebrity wedding was not fair use. In this August 14, 2012 copyright infringement decision, the court held that the publication of the photographs, which provided additional proof of this newsworthy event, was not fair use because, among other reasons, the magazine's use of the photographs was not sufficiently transformative, was for a commercial purpose and substantially harmed the potential market for the photographs.