After separate three-judge panels in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for — and then against — a freelance photographer suing the National Geographic Society over copyright claims, the full court has agreed to consider the case.
The Aug. 30 decision to vacate the latest ruling in Greenberg v. The National Geographic Society means that the 11th Circuit could reinstitute a conflict between the 11th and the 2nd Circuits about whether publishers, specifically National Geographic, may reproduce publications in digital CD-ROM format without paying more royalties to freelance photographers for additional use of their work. The U.S. Supreme Court tends to favor consideration of cases on issues in which circuit courts disagree.
