In a decision today, the Eleventh Circuit held that the National Geographic Society, by its publication of "The Complete National Geographic," had not infringed the copyrights of a photographer whose photos appear in the various individual issues of National Geographic.  The court held that the change from print to digital media was a "revision" as contemplated by 17 U.S.C. § 201(c), and therefore National Geographic had the privilege to reproduce it in that form. 

This is the opposite result of a previous decision by the Eleventh Circuit in the same case from 2001, and the court came to the opposite result based on an intervening Supreme Court case, New York Times Co. v. Tasini, which set forth the proper test for determining whether material was privileged under § 201(c).  As a result of the intervening case, the photographer's copyright claims against National Geographic based on the reproduction of magazine issues failed.  However, the court did remand one issue regarding use of a photograph in the introductory animation of The Complete National Geographic, explicitly finding that this use was outside the privilege of § 201(c), but not determining whether this use constituted copyright infringement.

More details of Greenburg v. Nat'l Geographic Soc'y after the jump.

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