## Facts

- Jeffrey Mendler, a professional photographer, took photographs of the America’s Cup yacht races, including a photo depicting a tacking duel between two yachts.
- In 1991, Mendler and Winterland Productions, Ltd. entered a written license allowing Winterland to use Mendler’s photos as “guides, models and examples” for “illustrations” to be printed on T-shirts and sportswear.
- The parties agreed the license did not authorize Winterland to use photographic reproductions of Mendler’s photos.
- Winterland initially produced shirts using line-drawing illustrations modeled on the photographs; Mendler did not challenge those uses.
- Around 1995, Winterland began selling shirts bearing a digitally altered version of Mendler’s photographic image rather than a drawn illustration.
- Mendler objected that the digitally altered image used the photograph itself (even if modified) beyond the license’s scope, registered his photographs, and sued for copyright infringement.

## Issues

1. Whether a license permitting use of photographs as “guides, models and examples” for “illustrations” authorized Winterland to use a digitally altered photographic reproduction on T-shirts.
2. If the use exceeded the license scope, whether Winterland’s conduct constituted copyright infringement.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s judgment for Winterland and remanded.
- The court held the license authorized only illustrations derived from the photos, not photographic reproductions.
- The digitally altered T-shirt image remained a photographic reproduction for purposes of the license’s limitation and therefore exceeded the license scope.
- Because Winterland used the work in an unauthorized manner, it infringed Mendler’s copyright.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright licenses are construed according to their terms; permitted modes of use are limited to what the license grants.
- Authorization to create “illustrations” from photographs does not, without clear language, include use of photographic reproductions, even if digitally modified.
- Use of a copyrighted work outside the scope of a license is actionable as copyright infringement.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit held that Winterland’s digitally altered T-shirt image was an unauthorized photographic reproduction rather than a permitted “illustration” under the parties’ license, and that exceeding the license’s scope constituted copyright infringement, requiring reversal and remand.


Mendler v. Winterland Prods., Ltd., 207 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2000)