Taylor Covert

Photography and the Law: Falling Bear

In late April of 2012 there was a bear lose on the CU- Boulder campus.  A student there captured a picture of the bear falling out of a tree.  The photo quickly went viral and out of control.  Duann recently started working for the university’s online student newspaper this past semester.   Duann agreed to sell the photo to the Daily Camera, which started an argument with the CU’s journalism department.  They had told Dunna he was not entitled to do this as they used it for the paper.  Dunna met with the chairman of the journalism department, Christopher Braider, and found that the copyright was fully his.  Duann joined the CU Independent late in the semester and never signed the standard contract, which states that any content produced for the online publication belongs to it.  Dunna doesn’t want any money for the photo and has turned it all down.  He just wants acknowledgement for his photo, “ I am happy that people enjoy my picture and that media outlets have given exposure to my picture. All I want is respect for my copyright”.  The camera offered to pay Duann $250 for the photo but Gil Asakawa had already talked to them, telling them the copyright for the photo belonged to the CU Independence and the student publication was due payment.  The Camera does not purchase photos from other publications; they share photos with other organizations and expect they will do the same in return.  Asakawa agreed to share the photo with the Camera as long as the credit was going to Duann and the CU Independence.