An important court ruling last week allows NANPA to continue to represent members and move forward in its lawsuit to stop Google’s unauthorized scanning and display of massive amounts of copyrighted materials.

U.S.Judge Denny Chin issued the opinion denying Google’s motion to dismiss lawsuitsby ASMP, NANPA and other associations representing visual artists and by the Authors Guild and other associations representing writers. The motion to dismiss had been based primarily on Google’s assertion that NANPA and other trade associations did not have standing to bring a copyright infringement suit on behalf of members. In this victory for NANPA and the other associations, Judge Chin has validated the ability of trade associations to represent their members, which is one of the primary benefits of professional photographers’ membership in NANPA and other associations. The Judge said "given the sweeping and undiscriminating nature of Google’s unauthorized copying, it would be unjust to require that each affected association member litigate his claim individually.”

NANPA’s class action copyright infringement suit against Google, Inc. was filed in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York in 2010. NANPA and several other trade associations, representing thousands of members, filed the classaction after the Court denied their request to join the pending class action in connection with the Google Library Project.

NANPA is pleased with this ruling and will continue to stand up for the rights of allimaging professionals in this landmark issue.

NorthAmerican Nature Photography Association
618-547-7616 - info@nanpa.org <mailto:info@nanpa.org