Badly behaved politicians, Parliamentary Pirates and a point of copyright principle
Amelia Andersdotter |
A right-wing populist politician was photographed and filmed while carrying an iron bar that was used to threaten people in central Stockholm. The politician was acting very aggressively towards a number of people during this incident and it caused national outrage since he is highly ranked in his party (the Swedish democrats) and a member of parliament. He later sued the newspaper for making wrongful use of the copyright in the images, especially the moving images. This politician has at least two ongoing cases and is winning in the lower courts.More information concerning the events in question can be found on the Wikipedia entry for the politician, Kent Ekerith.
I don't know the details of the case and am not qualified to make legal analyses in either case. Maybe Merpel knows someone?
The case has in either case been perceived as interesting since the publication of the films and pictures is so obviously of a political interest, given the nature of this individual's public mission. The courts have stated that there seems to be no reason why the news media would NOT have had to ask permission to have images/films published, and therefore the politician was granted compensation.
Just like politicians?* |
Merpel will be writing to Amelia under separate cover in due course, but in the meantime she encourages any of her Swedish copyright expert readers who can be of assistance in this case to contact Amelia by email here.
* Cover illustration of Cats Behaving Badly, by Celia Haddon (here).