Apr

Picture This! Photographers File Class Action Lawsuit Against Google

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Action, Against, Class, File, google, Lawsuit, Photographers, Picture, This

Poor Google. It takes two steps forward, one step back when trying to make progress with its book settlement.

FT.com reports a new group of content creators are not happy with the proposed deal: photographers.

They’ve filed a new class action lawsuit, because they were, apparently, left out of the one filed by the authors and publishers.

Photographers and illustrators were not allowed to join the existing class action suit, and have opted to file their own case…”Google is scanning in books and publications with visual images, which impedes the rights of the copyright holders of those images. We are seeking compensation for that,” said James McGuire, founding partner of the New York office of law firm Mishcon de Reya, who is leading the case.

Google was this close to getting approval for its $125M book settlement but this new lawsuit could re-open the can of worms for the search engine. While you may ask yourself, why did the photographers wait this long to file their action–I know I’m asking–apparently their intent is not to “crash the party” or influence the ruling in the existing class action.

The class action consists of American Society of Media Photographers, Graphic Artists Guild, the Picture Archive Council of America, the North American Nature Photography Association, and the Professional Photographers of America.

Knowing a thing or two about photography, I can tell you that it’s hard to make a living as a photographer–which is why I don’t–so I’m sure any settlement will go a long way to buying new memory cards or the latest strobe.