The American politician Sarah Palin and her political action committee has been sued for copyright infringement after publishing a famous 9/11 photograph.

The story is reminiscent of the recent story in which the Swedish Pirate Party reported the Minister of IT for copyright infringement, a case later dropped because the pirate party was not the copyright owner. In this case, Palin has been sued by the copyright owner, the North Jersey Media Group, reports CNN. According to Jennifer Borg of the North Jersey Media Group, they first tried asking Palin and her political action committee to remove the photograph, and only after getting no reply did they decide to go through the courts.

The famous photograph called “Raising the Flag at Ground Zero” was taken on September 11, 2001 by photographer Thomas E. Franklin. The photo shows three firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks of the day. The photograph made it onto several newspaper covers the days after the attacks, and was made into a stamp in 2002 in remembrance of the event.

Palin’s case raises an issue often brought up by pirates seeking to reform copyright laws, arguing that these crimes are committed every day by most people, who don’t think twice about what photos or other content they upload on Facebook, Twitter or a blog.

Featured image CC BY-NC-SA lakelandlocal2.

About Anton Nordenfur

I’m party organiser for the Swedish Pirate Party, and work as a freelancing writer and translator. I’m primarily interested in research politics and LGBTQ rights, and blog in Swedish over at antonnordenfur.com.

 

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The American politician Sarah Palin and her political action committee has been sued for copyright infringement after publishing a famous 9/11 photograph. The story is reminiscent of the recent story…