Instagram Embeds Not Subject to ‘Server’ Test, 9th Cir. Hears

Embedding Instagram posts on other websites shouldn’t be shielded from copyright liability by precedent that predates the technology, two photographers urged the Ninth Circuit during Monday oral arguments.

Alexis Hunley and Scott Brauer—who are trying to revive their lawsuit against Instagram LLC—argue that a requirement that an infringer must have had possession of a digital copy on their computer servers doesn’t jive with modern technology or copyright law. Instagram countered that the “server test” from the Ninth Circuit’s 2007 opinion in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Google Inc. was broadly written and clearly applies to embedded media, which link to and ...