The suit claims the ability to embed Instagram posts without licensing the content within them is “like eating for free at a buffet table of photos.” Instagram DENIS CHARLET/AFP via Getty Images The next wave in litigation over embedded social media posts is a copyright infringement suit against Instagram on behalf of pretty much anyone who has used the app and had their content aggregated elsewhere without permission. Fights over shared social content started back in 2017, before TikTok made people forget about Snapchat, when a photo of Tom Brady sparked lawsuits against a handful of media outlets. Someone took a pic of the NFL quarterback in the Hamptons with the general manager of the Boston Celtics and posted it on Snap; someone else uploaded a screen shot to Twitter, where it went viral; and then news outlets started embedding those tweets in stories about whether Brady was helping the NBA team recruit star Kevin Durant. The man who took the photo, Justin Goldman, sued the media organizations — and a New York federal judge agreed that embedding the Tweets containing the pic amounted to copyright infringement. (An appeals court declined to take up an interlocutory appeal, and eventually it…
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Instagram Embed Feature Sparks Copyright Suit From Users
