Photographer Wins Landmark $1.2M Lawsuit Against Companies That Took His Twitter Photos

A freelance photo-journalist has made a tidy sum, thanks to a jury ruling in his favor on Friday. The issue at hand? Copyright over photos he posted to Twitter.
According to Reuters, both the Agence France-Presse and Getty Images were ordered to pay $1.2 million to Daniel Morel.

These two companies were found to be in willful violation of the Copyright Act, after having used Morel’s photos that they took from Twitter.

The photos were posted to Twitter in 2010, following the earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 250,000 people.