Photographer from Kalinkavichy sued Moscow Zoo, which used his mink photo without permission
The legal proceedings lasted more than a year, and only recently did the Moscow City Court put an end to the case. As a result, the Belarusian won and will receive compensation for copyright infringement, writes the publication "Mocnyja Naviny".
As follows from court databases, the animal photographer's name is Andrei Shevchik, and he has been photographing birds and animals in the wild for many years.
In 2025, the man visited the zoo in Moscow and saw his photograph of an American mink hunting fish on one of the stands. It was published in 2017 on the website "Wild Nature of Belarus". The zoo downloaded the photo from the site and used it for its own purposes without the author's permission, thereby infringing copyright.
It was not possible to resolve the issue peacefully — the photographer went to court with a claim against the Moscow Zoo and… lost the case. The Presnensky District Court of Moscow dismissed his claim.
Then the Belarusian filed an appeal, which was reviewed by the Moscow City Court. And that's where he succeeded. The second court instance overturned the district court's decision, ordering the Moscow Zoo to pay the plaintiff compensation for copyright infringement, moral damages, and legal costs totaling 42,000 Russian rubles (about 570 US dollars).
"The case materials contain sufficient evidence confirming the Belarusian photographer's authorship. The defendant's argument about the photograph being in the public domain was deemed unfounded, as the placement of the image on various information portals does not in itself indicate the right of third parties to use it without the author's consent and without payment of remuneration," the case materials state.
Comments
Бо юрыдычна гэта тое ж самае, што і выставіць на стэндзе ў заапарку.