With so much in the news regarding the female escort that the former Governor Spitzer of New York hired, the attorneys for the call girl involved in the scandal have begun questioning whether the media’s use of material from her MySpace page can be considered a copyright violation.
While the media is entitled to protection under fair use policy, fair use does not apply to commercial uses. As the photos of the call girl are being used as attention-grabbers (headline content rather than buried within an article), it is not unreasonable to assume that the news outlets should be paying royalties for their use of the images. However, no one is sure if the call girl effectively transferred the copyright to MySpace by uploading the images, or if she retains possession of the original copyright.
