EFF Asks 11th Circuit To Affirm Miami U.S. District Court Ruling on Copyright Fair Use
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said Thursday that it filed a friend of the court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit Wednesday urging that court to “consider the First Amendment interests at play when copyright is…
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used to silence public criticism” as it considers Katz v. Chevaldina, a case in which Miami Heat minority owner Raanan Katz sued blogger Irina Chevaldina for copyright infringement. Katz had obtained a copyright on what he considered an unflattering photo that Chevaldina used in a blog post critical of Katz’s business practices in order to force the photo’s removal, EFF said. Katz had also sued Google for not complying with a takedown notice related to the photo but later dropped the search engine company from the lawsuit, EFF said. The 11th Circuit is considering Katz’s appeal of the case from the U.S. District Court in Miami, where Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley ruled that Chevaldina’s use of the photo is protected as a fair use. EFF said in a blog post that it’s asking the 11th Circuit to affirm McAliley’s fair use ruling and to “carefully consider the fact that Katz is using copyright as a tool for censorship.” Abuse of copyright “can affect not only an individual speaker’s right to speak, but also the public’s right to receive information,” EFF said. “This impact on free speech should inform courts’ fair use analysis. And a correct ruling in favor of fair use here should help deter misuse of copyright law in the future.”