He Shot the Newsweek Cover — and a Federal Court Says He Never Owned It

Lester LaRue shot 44 frames of the Murrah Federal Building wreckage on the morning of April 19, 1995, with his employer's camera, his employer's film and his employer's car — and a federal appeals court ruled the copyrights in those frames belonged to Oklahoma Natural Gas Company, not him.

One frame ran on the cover of Newsweek's May 1, 1995 issue. It didn't matter. The Tenth Circuit affirmed that the images were works made for hire under 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 201(b), making the employer the author unless a signed written instrument says otherwise. There was no such instrument. LaRue never got one.

Two photographers, three feet apart

LaRue was the safety coordinator for the gas company's Oklahoma City district, and photographing explosion scenes was part of the job. Standing roughly three feet away, per a 1996 Associated Press reconstruction, was Charles Porter IV, a 25-year-old bank credit specialist who shot the same moment — firefighter Chris Fields cradling one-year-old Baylee Almon. Porter's frame won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in spot news photography. LaRue's went to Newsweek's cover through a Sygma contract signed April 25, 1995, granting worldwide syndication rights under the credit "Lester (Bob) LaRue/Sygma."

LaRue registered his copyright claim on June 8, 1995; the company registered two images in early July. His registration within five years of publication gave him prima facie validity under § 410(c). It didn't survive summary judgment.

What does the ruling actually turn on?

Not who pressed the shutter. Whether he was at work. The Tenth Circuit ran the agency-law checklist: photography belonged to the job; the morning fell within working hours; the camera, film and processing bills were the company's; he checked in with the office repeatedly and never claimed personal time. Six facts, none about the picture itself.

LaRue's counsel leaned on a deposition line from company president David Kyle — "I don't see anything in [the Newsweek cover] that relates directly to the business of Oklahoma Natural Gas Company" — and the panel called the argument preposterous, rejecting the idea that a photo must depict the employer's business. Whose camera you hold is evidence, not a fourth test.

The ultimatum and $34,623.50

The company, worried about the optics of employees profiting from the bombing, demanded on September 6, 1995 that LaRue concede ownership and turn the money over to victims within two days. He refused. He was fired September 8 after 32 years, telling the AP: "I've been a company man for 32 years. Now, I look over my shoulder and say that was my life. Because it's gone." Spokesman Don Sherry countered that compensation "ought not go to him personally but should go to the victims."

The company sued October 5, 1995, and won an injunction plus damages calculated two ways: $34,623.50 actual, or $17,311.75 statutory per infringed photograph — the same total. The company elected statutory. On appeal, LaRue's charity argument collapsed in a footnote: $4,209.60 donated out of $38,305.15 in photo income. He also lost his jury demand on procedural grounds — 29 and 34 days late under Rule 38.

Why the mother and firefighter lost

Baylee's mother Aren Almon and Fields intervened on November 9, 1995 under Oklahoma's right-of-publicity statutes, Okla. Stat. tit. 12, §§ 1448–1449, which require a person to be "readily identifiable" by the naked eye from the photograph alone. The panel sympathized with Almon's distress but held the child's face completely obscured and Fields' face covered in helmet shadow. "This photograph, however, could be of any firefighter and any baby." Captions don't count under the statute.

The practical takeaway

LaRue's one win — reversal of removal on his wrongful-termination suit — died in state court on March 14, 2000. And note: the 1998 decision (156 F.3d 1244) is an unpublished order, a table entry that binds no other court, though courts lose this way every year. For staff shooters, the lever in § 201(b) is a signed written instrument, negotiated before the shutter fires. Freelancers hold the better cards: commissioned photos are work-for-hire only in narrow categories and only with a signed agreement. Publicity rights, meanwhile, vary state by state — a frame that's safe in Oklahoma may be exposure elsewhere.