Lex Lumina Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Google, Pinterest, Twitter, and Wikimedia

On October 11, 2022, Lex Lumina filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of Google, Pinterest, Twitter, and Wikimedia in support of Appellee Instagram in Hunley v. Instagram, LLC.

The case presents a simple question: Who is engaging in the public display of an image embedded in a website? Appellants urge the Ninth Circuit to reject its longstanding precedent in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007). Our amicus brief urges the Court to reaffirm that precedent, explaining the stakes:

“Rejecting Perfect 10 would profoundly distort copyright law and make millions of website operators into infringers. It would allow copyright owners to prohibit third parties from pointing audiences to a work that is already publicly displayed with the authorization of the copyright owner, merely because the copyright owner may not like the way the audience is being led to the work. Because the Copyright Act does not provide such an excessive level of control, the district court’s opinion should be affirmed.”

The brief is authored by Lex Lumina lawyer Rebecca Tushnet. Read the full brief here.