When you upload pictures to a website, you might click through
some terms of use…Did you just transfer ownership of the
copyright in those pictures?
In a recent US case (Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc.
v. American Home Realty Network, Inc., No. 12-2102, Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals) the court dealt with a
copyright infringement claim over photos uploaded to a real
estate website. Users were required to click-through the website
terms of use (TOU) prior to uploading, and those terms clearly
indicated that copyright in the images was transferred to the
website owner.
In the course of the infringement lawsuit, this was
challenged, so the court had to squarely address the question of
whether copyright can be validly transferred via online
terms. ”The issue we must yet resolve,” said the
Court, “is whether a subscriber, who ‘clicks yes’
in response to MRIS's electronic TOU prior to uploading
copyrighted photographs, has signed a written transfer of
