Battle Over A Tweet Could Reshape Online News

Digital rights groups and news associations are slamming a judge's recent ruling that Time, Yahoo and other publishers may have infringed copyright by embedding a tweet that contained a photo in news stories. 

The decision "has already created substantial uncertainty for media organizations, citizen journalists, educators, artists and activists," the News Media Alliance, Association of Magazine Media, Scripps Company, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge argue in a friend-of-the-court brief filed recently with U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Forrest in New York. The groups are urging Forrest to allow Time, Yahoo and the other companies to immediately appeal her recent decision. The dispute centers on a photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady taken in July 2016 by photographer Justin Goldman. He uploaded the picture to Snapchat, following which other users posted the photo to Twitter. After the photo appeared on Twitter, news sites including those operated by Time, Gannett, Breitbart and Yahoo embedded the Tweet in articles.