Minden Pictures, Inc. v. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., Case No. C-12-4601 EMC (Judge Chen)
Just because you have the shared right to reproduce copyrighted
works, the shared right to distribute copies of the works to the
public, the shared right to display the works publically, and the
exclusive agency right to license the works to third
parties, does not mean that you have standing to sue others for
infringement of those copyrighted works under 17 U.S.C. § 501,
according to a recent opinion from Judge Chen.
Judge Chen ruled that Minden Pictures, Inc., a stock photo
agency that enters into various exclusive agency agreements with
photographers in order to license their photos to publishers, did
not have standing to sue one of its licensors for copyright
infringement, despite the fact Minden Pictures possessed the right
under its exclusive agency agreements to license the photographs
for certain commercial uses. Although Minden Pictures alleged
that the publisher, John
