Category: Copyright

Three major publishers have called for the adoption of the PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) standards by picture archives, photographers and all other image suppliers.

Check it out here.

Peter Jaszi, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic at American University Washington College of Law has prepared a great list that explains when you don’t need to be concerned about releases or fair use.

Check it out here.

For more than three months, police Detective John Botte roamed the ruins of the World Trade Center, snapping photographs with his Leica Rangefinder camera and capturing hundreds of images of people at work on the monumental cleanup. His pictures soon appeared in a trio of books, most notably the best-selling autobiography of the city’s police commissioner.

Check it out here.

What we have here is yet another example of an aggregator reinventing copyright custom and practice to suit their business agenda at a cost to photographers. Compare and contrast Adobe’s cavalier attitude toward photographers’intellectual property with their own formidable license, that you have to accept when installing the PSX software

Check it out here.

This is the way that the internet works. Put your photos online and if you are any good, someone, somewhere, somehow will technically violate your copyright. It *will* happen. And you have two choices with what you can do about it. You can get worked up and get upset and let it eat at you, or you can let it go and move on content that you are making the world a more beautiful place.

Check it out here.

Liz Ordonez-Dawes, the multi-million dollar verdict winner, “hope[s] photographers are empowered by [her] news and take action.” Liz was kind enough to share some important lessons she learned from her lawsuit:

Check it out here.

The A.P. doesn’t get to make it’s own rules around how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows. So even thought they say they are making these new guidelines in the spirit of cooperation, it’s clear that, like the RIAA and MPAA, they are trying to claw their way to a set of property rights that don’t exist today and that they are not legally entitled to. And like the RIAA and MPAA, this is done to protect a dying business model – paid content.

So here’s our new policy on A.P. stories: they don’t exist. We don’t see them, we don’t quote them, we don’t link to them. They’re banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet.

Check it out here.

CONGRESS is considering a major reform of copyright law intended to solve the problem of “orphan works” — those works whose owner cannot be found. This “reform” would be an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to the public.

Check it out here.

Most assuredly, the AP has a new contract. We first reported about it here (A New AP Contract Emerging? – 5/14/08), and more than one copy came our way from several readers. Of note in their paperwork, was the disparity between pay from bureau to bureau.

You have until June 1, or about 2 weeks, to indicate your intent to object to this or sign it. If you don’t sign by June 1, you won’t be getting any more AP assignments.

Check it out here.

The subject of copyright is always high in photographers’ minds, especially in light of Orphan Works legislation & rampant image “borrowing” online. Consequently there’s an ongoing burning desire for secure metadata that can’t be stripped away from images.

Check it out here.

These days, authors, artists, and photographers are likely to find one or more of their creative works used without permission. One defense to the purported infringement is often that it is a “fair use.” The challenge then is determining whether the unauthorized use is an infringement or fair use. While only a court of law can make that decision, understanding what makes a use “fair” will help you protect your work.

Check it out here.

As the orphan works copyright legislation advances through Congress, it has exposed a split among photo associations. With their ranks divided, professional photographers have lost whatever lobbying power they might have had as a unified force.

Check it out here.

Q. I currently am a “freelance” photographer (without pay) with a newspaper. I have not signed anything with the newspaper. Am I subject to work-for-hire provisions?

Check it out here.

One of the cool features we released a few weeks ago with the Personal Archive is the ability to sell an image as an electronic personal use license via digital download. Why is this so cool?

Check it out here.

Thomas Hawk:

A few of my photos seem to be in Amit’s photostream as well.

My response?

Personally I could care less.

My photos are routinely used without my permission all over the internet. I just don’t care.

Check it out here.