The implications of this court decision extend beyond this case, as related cases with differing outcomes continue to arise, setting the stage for a potential higher-court showdown in the future. A New York judge previously issued a contradictory ruling in 2018 when a photographer sued various publications for embedding tweets featuring an original image of NFL legend Tom Brady. The judge sided with the photographer, emphasizing that the Copyright Act does not require possession of an image to display it, contrary to the argument made in the Instagram case.
