A claim of copyright infringement may be defeated by showing that the accused infringer independently created the work in question. In determining whether works are substantially similar, courts consider whether there are limited ways to express the same idea, whether the similar elements are commonly used in works of that type, and other factors. Copyright infringement also requires actual copying, which may be proven by showing that the works are substantially similar and that the accused infringer had access to the copyrighted work (because, for example, it was publicly available on a website). So does the first artist to stage and capture such an image have legal rights to prevent others from doing so? Not necessarily.Ĭopyright law does not protect ideas, but rather the original and creative expressions of ideas. The depiction of a plastic bag littering a pristine ocean, initially appearing to be a beautiful iceberg, is unquestionably a powerful and provocative image. To complicate matters further, some other iceberg/plastic bag pictures came out of the woodwork. This exchange set off a controversy, with people weighing in on all sides. NatGeo should know better.” Bence’s tweet featured a photograph of another plastic bag in the ocean, which he apparently created in 2015 to help advertise Tesco’s reusable bags. An artist named Matus Bence came forward and tweeted at Wallace: “thats sad that you chose a stolen idea and ‘artwork’ to be on your cover page. It was “liked” over 100,000 times, retweeted nearly 60,000 times, and generated a lot of online chatter and positive comments in publications ranging from Mashable to the Huffington Post.īut the universal positivity was short-lived. Nat Geo Senior Photo Editor Vaughn Wallace tweeted out the cover, explaining that the photo was taken by Jorge Gamboa. The image was accompanied by the text: “PLANET OR PLASTIC? 18 billion pounds of plastic ends up in the ocean each year. I was particularly interested in the one arising from Nat Geo’s recent magazine cover featuring a partially submerged iceberg, which upon closer inspection was revealed to be a discarded plastic grocery bag. Like any other magazine publisher, “Nat Geo” (as they like to call themselves these days) encounters a wide range of IP issues. And yes, that border is literally a registered trademark. Since 1888, it has published the iconic magazine National Geographic, recognizable to many by the trademark yellow border on the cover page. The National Geographic Society is an interesting organization.
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