NOELIA MONGE V. MAYA MAGAZINES, INC. - Ninth Circuit Court of ...

9174 MONGE v. MAYA MAGAZINES, INC.
themselves, against a gossip magazine, that makes money by
publishing celebrity photographs, with a paparazzo, who
apparently stole the disputed pictures, stuck in the middle.
Noelia Lorenzo Monge and Jorge Reynoso (“the couple”),
Latin American celebrities, claim that Maya Magazines, Inc.
and Maya Publishing Group, LLC (collectively “Maya” or
“the magazine”) infringed their copyrights by publishing previously
unpublished photos of their clandestine wedding in
“TVNotas,” a Spanish-language celebrity gossip magazine.
The district court granted Maya summary judgment on the
ground that publication of the images was fair use under the
Copyright Act of 1976. We disagree and reverse. The tantalizing
and even newsworthy interest in the photos does not
trump a balancing of the fair use factors. Simply put, Maya
did not sustain its burden of establishing that its wholesale,
commercial use of the previously unpublished photos constituted
fair use.
I. THE CAST
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Noelia Lorenzo Monge is a pop singer and model. Jorge
Reynoso is her manager and husband, and a music producer.
Oscar Viqueira is a paparazzo who occasionally worked as a
driver and bodyguard for the couple during their visits to
Miami. Maya publishes multiple magazines, including the
celebrity gossip magazine “TVNotas.” In the past, Maya has
paid Monge to pose for pictures published in its magazine, “H
Para Hombres.” Reynoso was paid $25,000 for photos of his
wedding to his former wife Pilar Montenegro, as well as
$40,000 for photos of his vacation in Paris with Montenegro.
II. THE SET
Monge and Reynoso were married at the “Little White
Wedding Chapel” in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 3, 2007.
Valuing their privacy, and Monge’s image as a young, single