The 2016 copyright infringement case against the media website Mashable that we last heard about in April is back again. Following a similar case with an opposite ruling regarding how copyright infringement may pertain to embedded Instagram posts, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York has reopened the copyright suit filed by photographer Stephanie Sinclair against Mashable.
Sinclair`s lawsuit is part of a copyright spat between the photographer and Mashable after the website embedded one of her Instagram posts in a 2016 article titled `10 female photojournalists with their lenses on social justice.` Mashable had first reached out to Sinclair and offered $50 to license the image, an offer that she rejected. As an apparent loophole to this matter, Mashable then simply embedded Sinclair`s public Instagram post featuring the same image.
A screenshot of the article in question. Sinclair`s Instagram photo has since been removed.
In her lawsuit, Sinclair had argued that Mashable did not have permission nor a license to use the image, while Mashable countered that it didn`t need the photographer`s permission because Instagram`s terms covered sublicensing. Instagram`s terms of service stated at the time that users:
...hereby grant to [Instagram] a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings). You can end this license anytime by deleting your content or account.`
Based on its understanding of those terms, the court ruled against Sinclair, stating in April that, `Mashable was within its rights to seek a sublicense from Instagram when Mashable failed to obtain a license directly from Plaintiff...`
However, Instagram`s parent company Facebook introduced a plot twist earlier this month when it clarified ...
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