CNET != Copyright Infringer

Digg is featuring a story about how CNET is infringing on others' copyrights. That's shameful, and against the law. I wonder if the photographer will bring suit? If I understand correctly, copyright infringement can carry triple damages if the copyright holder has registered their claim.

The copyright in question is a photo of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. CNET could have easily licensed a picture of Jerry Yang from Getty Images or a similar source, but chose not to. That's really a shame, but its a good thing someone caught them red handed.

I think I'll skip visiting CNET from now on. You?

UPDATE 5 minutes later: I totally take back what I said above. I was wrong, and jumped to the conclusion. You really have to read beyond the headline! Here's the important part of the page I link above:

CNET News.com did in fact have permission from Mitch to use the photo. Below, I'll copy in the correspondence I had with him in June when we used the Jerry Yang photo in this photo gallery:
www.news.com/2300-1014_3-6155459-1.html?tag=ss

Before I get there, though, I need to make it very clear that CNET Networks in general and CNET News.com in particular take copyrights very seriously. Contrary to a claim in this thread, we do regularly provide photo credits - the rare exceptions being certain publicity shots (such as company-provided publicity shots of CEOs), thumbnail images that point to a gallery page where credit is provided, and so on. And we expend a huge amount of energy in making sure that we have permission to use photos that appear on our site.

When we found and used Mitch's photo of Jerry Yang, it had a Creative Commons license granting permission to use the image. I don't recall the specific CC license, but I'm sure it must have been Attribution-Share Alike or something equally open to reuse; otherwise, we simply would not have used it. I myself wrote immediately to Mitch to get an even more explicit OK to use the photo, which he graciously granted us.

A few minutes ago, I wrote to Mitch again to remind him of that. Obviously, judging by his comment above, he's forgotten our exchange in June (see below). I'm hoping that he weighs in here again to acknowledge that exchange.

Jon Skillings
Managing editor
CNET News.com

---- MY CORRESPONDENCE WITH MITCH ON JUNE 21 ----

-----Original Message-----
From: Mitchell Aidelbaum [mailto:maidelba@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 5:58 PM
To: Jon Skillings
Subject: [Flickr] Re: Jerry Yang photo

You've been sent a Flickr Mail from Maximum Mitch:

------------------------------------------------------------

:: Re: Jerry Yang photo

Jon,
Thank you so much for using it and also notifying me.
Please let me know if you need any more shots or need a photographer for events in SF or the Bay area. I'm available for hire.

Thanks!
Mitch

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-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Skillings
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 4:48 PM
To: Jon Skillings
Subject: Jerry Yang photo - note to Flickr user

Jerry Yang photo

Hi, Mitch.

I wanted to let you know that we made use of a photo you took of Jerry Yang and David Filo, to accompany our coverage of Yang's appointment to CEO of Yahoo.

It's a first-rate photo, and we were happy to come across it - and see your generous Creative Commons license. We credited you as you requested.

You can see it on CNET News.com here:
news.com.com/2300-1014_3-6155459-1.html?tag=ss

Thanks, and best regards,

Jon Skillings
Managing editor
CNET News.com