Judge OKs copyright settlement over Vivian Maier photos

CHICAGO (AP) - A judge has approved a settlement over the copyright to photos shot by a Chicago nanny dating back to the 1950s and profiled in an Oscar-nominated documentary.

Cook County Probate Judge Mary Ellen Coghlan issued her approval order Thursday after meeting privately with John Maloof, who owns more than 90 percent of the film Vivian Maier left behind when she died in 2009.

Maloof also co-directed the documentary "Finding Vivian Maier."

The Chicago Tribune reports (http://trib.in/1WQrDKX ) that Coghlan ordered the settlement sealed from the public to protect ongoing negotiations with other owners of Maier's work.

Maloof has said that resolving the copyright issue will clear obstacles to exhibiting and selling the images more widely.

Maier took more than 150,000 photographs during her spare time in Chicago and New York.

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Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com