Category Archives: copyright

The marketplace could destroy an artist’s gift

From a story in the NYTimes Magazine entitled “What is Art for” (here):
For nearly a decade he had been struggling to explain — to his family, to nonartist friends, to himself — why he devoted so much of his time and energy to something as nonremunerative as poetry.
The predicament of all artists living “in an [...]

Senate Passes Orphan Works Act

Next stop is the house. Email or call your representative and let them know how you feel about it (here).

Fair Use of Photography On A Blog

I’d say most people writing about photography and/or photographers on a blog are using the “Fair Use” limitation in copyright law (here) as a way to avoid having to get permission and possibly pay for the use. I use it sometimes and in turn I can expect to see things that I write about quoted [...]

Plagiarism in 2008

Jody Rosen, a writer at Slate Magazine, was alerted by a reader to a story in a small Texas alternative weekly called the Bulletin where “10 and a half paragraphs copied nearly verbatim from ‘A Pirate Looks at 60,’” were plagiarized from an essay he wrote on Jimmy Buffett.
So, Jody writes a story for slate [...]

Heineken Discovers Flickr Isn’t Full Of Free Photography

The incident below can serve as an important warning to corporations that mistakenly think Flickr photographers won’t jump your shit if you infringe upon their copyright. Also, they should keep in mind, the cc license is virtually worthless in protecting you, if you mistakenly believe those photos can be used for free, because it can [...]

ORPHAN WORKS – IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED

THIS IS URGENT – YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED
UPDATE (here).
The Senate is “hotlining” the Orphan Works Bill at this very minute, which means it could pass within the hour.
PLEASE CALL BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS IMMEDIATELY and ask them to either vote NO or put a hold on the Bill.
S. 2913: Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act [...]

Photographers Should Embrace Richard Prince

Whether you think it’s art is irrelevant. Nancy Spector, Chief Curator at the Guggenheim decided that “Prince’s work has been among the most innovative art produced in the United States during the past 30 years. His deceptively simple act in 1977 of rephotographing advertising images and presenting them as his own ushered in an entirely [...]

Orphan Works- ASMP Update

ASMP is now calling for photographers to write their Senators after realizing the Senate version of Orphan Works has none of the changes they like in the House version and could still be passed into law the Senate version was changed for the worse. Here’s their statement:
“Call to Action on Orphan Works: ASMP urges you [...]

H.R.5889 Orphan Works Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)

H.R.5889
Orphan Works Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Orphan Works Act of 2008′.

Urgent: Orphan Works Bill

I was planning on spending some time looking at the Orphan Works Bill eventually but it appears that I may have missed the boat. Here’s a notice I received this morning:
UPDATE: It appears that the ASMP and PPA are in favor of the bill. Here’s a quote from an email I just received “Making a [...]

Microsoft’s campaign to teach teens about intellectual property rights

Teens appear to be willing to curtail illegal downloading when told they face fines or jail time.
This finding, among many in a survey published by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) on Wednesday, is the basis for the software company’s new campaign to teach teens respect for intellectual property rights.
[...]Microsoft’s survey found that about half of the teenagers [...]

Copyright Overhaul

Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing fame has a story in the Guardian (here) yesterday about distinguishing between cultural and commercial uses of copyrighted material. He makes a good case for creating an exception in the law for low end cultural use of copyrighted material, stuff that goes on everyday that’s tolerated by everyone because there’s [...]

Copyright Debate

Oh boy, a debate over copyright and fair use in the NY Times bits blog (here) between Rick Cotton, the general counsel at NBC and Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School.
RC: Fair use in the digital age is the same as fair use in the non-digital age. The fact that digital tools make [...]

Photographers Copyright on the Internet

I have a feeling I will end 2008 with the same headline on 52 posts. Well, I don’t give a crap. We can stand around and whine as all the little bitches who have nothing worth copyrighting tell everyone who’s listening that the law is outdated and oppressive or we can go out and defend [...]