There is something very puzzling about this whole Orphan works bill and what is implied. The gist of it says that if a user cannot identify the owner of an image, he/she can legally use it without suffering a huge penalty. In a nutshell.  Hear me out. One of the biggest issue here is that Read More →

“ASP is a membership association of more than 350,000 U.S. photographers, Photo agents, and Photo agency of every kind of photography. Through agreements with affiliated international societies, ASP also represents hundreds of thousands of photo creators worldwide. ASP is the only U.S.  rights organization created and controlled by photographers, Photo agents and Photo agency, with Read More →

You have to love the French !! This is a good one: Here is the latest. In an attempt to be more convinient and user friendly, I presume, the French governement has decided to  put free automated passport machines in all the city halls ( 2000 nationwide). The idea is that you can get everything Read More →

There used to be something called “digital rights”. That is, when a publication wanted the right to publish a copy of an image to use in a digital format, it would pay an additional license fee. At first, like the internet itself or CD ROM (remember those ?) circulation, it was small. But everyone was Read More →

While the world of photography was busy trying to figure out how to squeeze one more dollar out of every image, pointing the fingers at potential scammers, or listing, day after, the name and addresses of every single newspaper closing its door, the hallways of the supreme court justice in Manhattan echoed of the fainted Read More →

A bunch of photography associations recently banded together and issued a joint statement.  Called “Save photography !”, it is looking to garner enough signatures from photo professionals to make an impact. The country is France and the associations are Freelens (a photojournalist association), the UPC ( Union des Photographes Createurs) and the Saif ( An Read More →

“Copyright owners tend to focus on the aspect they see of piracy, which is the lost revenue. They therefore think what drives users to do it is the desire to get something for free. But iTunes shows that people will pay for stuff online, if you make it easy. A significant component of piracy is Read More →

 According to AFP, french photographer Alain Ernoult has been awarded 1 million euros in a case involving Getty Images. The photographer, famous for his areal images, was a contributor to The Image Bank. He had signed an exclusive agreement with the company, covering the years 1991 to 1995.  In 2001, he brought the company to Read More →

I am no friend of fair use.  “Fair Use is a USA law that provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test.  In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be Read More →

The truth about your photo organizations is that they have either no idea what they are talking about or they have no idea  what they are doing. Either way, they are slowly becoming obsolete and useless. Take PACA for example. The Picture Archives Council of America is preparing for its next “international” meeting to be Read More →