Category: Copyright

“This number is made out of lies, cheating and worst of all: theft,” writes In a Nutshell. “All of this is wildly known but the media giant Facebook is pretending everything is fine, while damaging independent creators in the process. How does this work?”

A black man helps an older African-American woman as she shops in an Oakland, Calif., supermarket. The image from 1972, by Stephen Shames, documents an initiative to protect the elderly in a crime-ridden neighborhood. It doesn’t just show community activism, it also challenges lurid media stereotypes about the organization responsible for the initiative: the Black Panther Party.

“Public domain works are routinely commercialized,” writes Getty. “Publishers charge money for their copies of Dickens novels and Shakespeare plays, etc.” That, claims Getty, is what they’re doing with Highsmith’s work, and it’s totally legal.

It’s one of the strangest, saddest copyright rulings we’ve ever heard of. Motolko captured the northern lights photo above during an all-night photo shoot in March of 2015, sharing it and others like it on social media where his post went viral. The next night, state-run television network Belteleradiocompany used it without permission, credit, or payment.

Here are some of the interesting stats: 64% of photographers experienced image theft this past year, 50% of the thieves were bloggers and social media users, and 84% of photographers never register their photos with the U.S. Copyright Office.

But Binded isn’t the world’s first copyright platform. That title belongs to the US Copyright Office and their eCO (Electronic Copyright Office) system which has been around for a decade. In the US, only the US Copyright Office provides a legal method of registering your copyright.

“Modern copyright rules fit for the digital age” is how the European Commission describes its proposals for the first major overhaul of EU copyright law since 2001. But a wide range of startups and industry, academic, digital activist and human rights groups believe that key elements of the proposals will cause serious harm to the functioning of the Internet in the EU and beyond. A vote taking place next week in the key European Parliament JURI committee will determine the likely shape of the law.

500px just shut down its Marketplace stock photo platform in favor of selling photos directly through Getty Images and VCG, as the company announced a month ago. And as part of the major change, 500px has wiped out over 1 million of the Creative Commons photos photographers had uploaded to the service.

A Virginia federal court has made a decision that photographers won’t be happy to hear: the court ruled that finding a photo on the Internet and then using it without permission on a commercial website can be considered fair use.

MEPs have voted to reject a controversial copyright law in its current form, deciding to return to the issue in September.

I immediately went back in to my 500px settings to check the licensing option, but this was definitely turned off. I then raised a support request with 500px to ask for the image to be removed and also explain why, despite opting out of licensing, this image had been taken by Getty to sell.