Wisconsin High School Athletics, Newspapers, Fight Over Photo Rights

Wisconsin newspaper photographers are only weeks away from covering their high school state basketball championships, and wrestling and swimming championships have already started, while in the background a fight is going on between the state’s newspaper editors and publishers and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA).

The dispute is over who controls the photographic and video rights from the title games, along with the regional and sectional matches, meets and games which lead up to the championships, and whether the newspapers have the right to resell the game’s pictures and video to the public.

“What it comes down to is that they do not recognize the Web as a legitimate form of newspaper publication and will not allow sales of stills in online galleries and videos,”