A recent decision from the Eastern District of Virginia took an expansive view on the fair use defense to copyright infringement that calls into question the scope of copyright protection for photographers. In Brammer v. Violent Hues Productions, LLC, a photographer sued a festival organizer for copyright infringement based on using the photographer’s time-lapse photo of a Washington, D.C. neighborhood in its website. The organizer claimed that it found the picture online and did not see any indication that someone claimed copyright in the picture and, therefore, believed that it was making use of a publically available photograph. The organizer… Read more