Great Bowery Inc. v. Consequence Sound LLC

── Great Bowery Inc. v. Consequence Sound LLC ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: May 05, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 24-12482 Document: 43-1 Date Filed: 05/05/2026 Page: 1 of 25 FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 24-12482 ____________________ GREAT BOWERY INC., a.k.a. Truck Archive, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus CONSEQUENCE SOUND LLC, CONSEQUENCE MEDIA GROUP INC., DOES 1 THROUGH 10, INCLUSIVE, Defendants-Appellees. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 9:23-cv-80488-RLR ____________________ USCA11 Case: 24-12482 Document: 43-1 Date Filed: 05/05/2026 Page: 2 of 25 2 Opinion of the Court 24-12482 Before JORDAN and NEWSOM, Circuit Judges, and CORRIGAN, District Judge.∗ JORDAN, Circuit Judge: Annie Leibovitz is a world-famous photographer known for her portraits of celebrities. See, e.g., Jane Bua, Annie Leibovitz Outside the Frame, The New Yorker (Nov. 17, 2025). In 2014, she signed an agreement with Trunk Archive, a business operated by Great Bowery Inc., for exclusive worldwide representation to license her photographs. Great Bowery then brought suit, in its own name, against several defendants for copyright infringement of photos taken by her. The question presented on appeal is whether Great Bowery has statutory standing under the Copyright Act to bring this action. The district court ruled that it did not and granted summary judgment to the defendants. After review of the record, and with the benefit of oral argument, we conclude that the district court’s understanding of copyright law was not quite right. The court believed that, because Ms. Leibovitz retained certain rights in her written agreement, Great Bowery lacked standing. Because that analysis was mistaken, we vacate the summary judgment order and remand for further proceedings. ∗ The Honorable Timothy Corrigan, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 24-12482 Document: 43-1 Date Filed: 05/05/2026 Page: 3 of 25 24-12482 Opinion of the Court 3 I In 2014, Ms. Leibovitz and Trunk Archive executed a written “Artist Agreement.” Under the Agreement, Ms. Leibovitz “grant[ed] to Trunk Archive the exclusive worldwide right to license, market, and promote” certain images she created. But Ms. Leibovitz reserved the “right to collaborate with or deliver” any of those images “to Robert Pledge and/or Contact Press Images for use in special projects or other endeavors [she] deems of interest.” In the decade that followed, three new Star Wars movies were filmed. Each time, Condé Nast invited Ms. Leibovitz to the movie set to take photographs of the cast and crew for Vanity Fair Magazine. For each photo shoot, Condé Nast signed written agreements with “AL Studio, LLC . . . f/s/o Annie Leibovitz.” Each agreement contained a “Reservation of Rights” clause, which provided that “[a]ll rights with regard to the Works not expr