A portrait photographer, Jon Wolf, dropped his lawsuit on Feb. 14 against “nearly three dozen media outlets” for using photograph he took a year ago of one of the January Arizona shooting victims, Tuscon, Arizona ABC-affiliate KGUN reported.
The photo was “a simple family portrait” of Christina Taylor Green and her mother. Christina died in the shooting.
“Although the family may have had physical possession of the photo, it did not own the copyright. That belongs to the photographer the family had hired to take the picture. Now that photographer has lawyered up and is in the process of suing media who used the photo in news reporting,” as KGUN explained when the lawsuit first made news.
Wolf told KGUN he intended to “give all the money he gets” from the lawsuit to the charity Tu Nudito, but Wolf’s attorney said just “a substantial portion” of the money would be given. However, Tu Nudito’s executive director Liz McCucker reportedly said: “When we were notified there was litigation we took the necessary steps and notified Jon of our wish to be excluded as a recipient as a result of any funds that were raised through litigation or authorized licensing of Christina’s photo.”
After Green’s family criticized Wolf in a statement, Wolf dropped the suit. Green’s family stated:
“Jon Wolf, as we have painfully learned, showed poor taste in his choice to litigate over the usage of his photograph of our little girl Christina-Taylor Green. Our intent was not to allow others to profit from the Jon Wolf image but to allow the media to portray our daughter in the best light possible and to tell her story. It is unfortunate that he has chosen to litigate over the use of his photograph at this time, or at all, in light of the fact that our family is still mourning and grieving the loss of our daughter.”