Photographer who took well known photo of Mel King sues MIT for using it without paying him

A Maine photographer who captured Boston activist Mel King in a pensive pose for a 2009 Boston Magazine article today sued MIT for re-using the photo without either his permission or payment.

In a copyright suit filed in US District Court in Boston, Sean Alonzo Harris says MIT "used the Copyrighted Work across a range of advertising endeavors to advance Defendant's image and, upon information and belief, to bring in donations and other revenues," in particular for a December, 2023 presentation on King's life and legacy, which led to other violations, including a "glowing" Globe article and in Instagram posts "touting Defendant’s connection to Mr. King."

In his complaint, Harris says MIT is obviously no naive blogger unfamiliar with copyright law. In fact, "defendant is a sophisticated institution and it understands the value of copyrighted works" - to the point of filing its own suits against companies it feels have lifted its own intellectual property.

Also, "Defendant forbids its students from using copyrighted materials and asserts that it complies with U.S. copyright law," so, yeah, it's familiar with the vicissitudes of copyright law, the complaint states.

Harris is seeking a court order to get MIT to knock it off and pay him the equivalent of the profits he lost through its use of his photo.

King died in March, 2023.