Sports Photographers’ Agreement With AP Broad Enough to Cover NFL’s Uses

• Holding: A federal district court dismisses copyright and other claims brought by sports photographers against the NFL, its member football teams and the stock photo agency contracted to handle photo licensing.
• Holding: Broad licensing contracts permitted the Associated Press to grant “complimentary” sublicenses to NFL entities that generated no revenue to be shared with the copyright holders in the form of royalties.

A licensing contract that sports photographers entered into with the Associated Press was broad enough to cover the AP’s sublicensing of those images to the National Football League, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New ...