A victory for the little guys (man bites dog)

Photographers have won a landmark legal victory after a US federal jury awarded $1.2m to Haitian freelance photojournalist Daniel Morel. The US case is the first to define who owns photographs posted on Twitter.  A New York jury decisively backed Daniel Morel in a copyright case against photo agency Getty and news agency AFP, after the latter claimed a right to use Morel's photographs of the 2010 Haiti disaster.

The size of the compensation is impressive (it represents several decades of work for the average freelancer), but much more significant is the fact that the legal system has slapped down Getty/AFP for their grabbing practices. If the case had been one of the big boys against someone who had used their content without paying then they would have clamped down hard from the minute they found out (they even tried to sue the photographer for "commercial disparagement").
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This is a victory for the little guy, showing to the world that online content, despite the best endeavours of  corporations to strip metadata, is still copyright to the original owner.

I would expect Getty/AFP to appeal as otherwise the ruling makes a defence of a similar nature more difficult in the future.  Which is a shame as it will deprive Daniel Morel of much of his compensation (just how much of it will be swallowed up in legal fees) when they should be man enough to hold their hands up and admit their mistakes.

A very good reason to get out the party hats and raise a glass to Daniel Morel!