In October 2022, Chief Financial Officer Matthew Sheehy received a copyright infringement notice from PicRights Ltd., alleging that the Scroll used images that are copyrighted by Reuters, a news organization, in two articles published in 2014 and 2017.
A company dedicated to copyright enforcement, PicRights monetizes copyright infringements by scouring the internet for images (including those uploaded years before) that were used without the owner’s permission.
According to Mr. Sheehy, in the 2017 article “Macron Wins French Election” and the 2014 article “Deerfield Debates LGBT Rights in Russia,” the Scroll misappropriated images of Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin from Reuters, and later published the articles (containing the copyrighted images) on the Scroll’s website.
After receiving the notice and handing it off to Deerfield’s General Counsel, who then confirmed the legitimacy of the company, Deerfield negotiated with PicRights to lower the initial request of $2,000 to around $500. In late November, the Academy, on behalf of the Scroll, paid the fine.
Since the incident, the Academy has received similar notices for other student organizations, including one for The Focal Point, Deerfield’s student-run Science Magazine.
Reflecting on what happened, Mr. Sheehy said, “I don’t view this as a bad thing. I think this is a wonderful learning moment of how we think about copyright, how we think about attribution to something, and how we think about images that are part of the public domain versus copyrighted and which can be used and can’t be used in that way, particularly when it comes to a digital platform.”
He added, “I think it’s a wonderful learning moment to understand from a journalistic point of view, what can we use? What can’t we use? When should we seek permission to use something?”
Director of the Library Marshall Carroll suggested that, to avoid such incidents, student publications should place “greater reliance on students creating original media. There are talented Deerfield students who should take pictures or create original graphic representations. It would be much more meaningful for the media to connect these events to our community.”
One major concern, however, lies in the next generation of students, who may not have witnessed the same learning experiences. Thus, according to Mr. Carroll, it has become even more imperative to build processes and procedures that not only identify best practices but also explain why.
“Too often in organizations with turnover, like schools where students graduate and faculty take on different responsibilities, institutional memory gets lost,” he said.
According to Mr. Carroll, “The biggest takeaway is that copyright and information literacy are important and have real-life consequences,” he said.
For Dean of Faculty Ivory Hills, this incident underscores the necessity for better coordination to avoid oversights. He offered the following advice: “Start earlier, work as teams, do drafts, don’t wait until the last minute, and slow down,” he said.
Upon being notified of past copyright infringements in October 2022, the Scroll XCVII Editorial Board worked to avoid further violations. After consulting faculty resources such as Mr. Carroll, they created a copyright policy for future editorial boards. The policy requires graphic artists to incorporate their own creative interpretation to any works including logos. Additionally, when acquiring photos from any source, consent must be clearly given by the original photographer, even if the person in the photo has given such consent.
When asked how the current Scroll Board reacted to the copyright violations, Newsroom Managing Editor Clara Chae ’23 said, “even though the infringements didn’t occur under our leadership, we still feel responsible for establishing better guidelines for future boards.” She continued, “I also think only good can come of fully utilizing our student graphic artists and photographers.”
Editor-in-Chief Sunshine Chen ’23 added, “The copyright incident made us realize the broad scope of the Scroll’s reach due to its online presence and has thus encouraged us to be even more vigilant in our journalistic principles.”