Ian Furniss Photography » Blog Archive

Sunday Round-Up

Earlier this week I wrote a brief post discussing some of the difficulties involved in protecting your images on the web. To start the sunday round-up off i’d like to move that on a bit by asking what should you do if you feel your rights have been infringed? Personally, I think the answer is that you contact the person you feel is responsible for the infringement, you discuss it politely, and then if you get nowhere and you feel you have a case, you seek legal advice and based on that, either take it through the courts or don’t.

Yesterday I came across a tweet linking to this Flickr page that tells of how The Independent (A UK Newspaper) had allegedly stolen the users image and used it in breach of copyright. This is exactly the kind of thing of thing I feel should be dealt with in the way I set out above and I suspect in most circumstances a happy resolution for all will follow. In essence, the complainant feels his copyright has been infringed and wants some form of recompense for that infringement. Sounds straightforward enough. Unfortunately, The Terms of Use on The Independent website clearly assert their own rights to copyright and the reproduction of their work, and taking a screenshot of the website, thereby reproducing their text, images, and everything else, then hosting it off site (i:e on Flickr) is clearly in breach of them. That’s without even considering the reprinting of the email correspondence. I’m not going to call sides here, two wrongs don’t make a right, but were I in the place of The Independent i’d take one look at that page and pass it straight to the lawyers as a late Christmas bonus.

If i’d studied more at school i’d probably be aware of some nice latin translation for ‘plaintiff beware’, but I didn’t, so i’m not. Suffice to say that if you’re going to assert your rights it’s best to do it professionally. With luck and if The Independent’s feeling incredibly generous, they may offer a goodwill gesture just to shut up the bad publicity. If not, well, good luck paying their legal costs.

Since we’re on something of a legal theme here this week i’d like to draw attention to an article here from the BJP, British Journal of Photography – Photographers claim victory over Section 44, but urge caution. It’s a sad situation when we have to rely on European courts to protect us more than our own but increasingly it’s becoming the only way. Following on from that, on Saturday 23rd January there’ll be a gathering at Trafalgar Square organised by the I’m A Photographer Not A Terrorist campaign.

Time for something cheerful! Tim Parkin & Dav Thomas have announced the start of their Peak District landscape photography workshops. For anyone wanting to take their landscape photography to the next level, pop across to the site and get signed up. When you look at the prices and what they’re including, demand is likely to be very high indeed!

To finish this weeks round-up i’d like to go a little off topic with two articles. The first is a blog post from David Dowse where he describes returning to the UK for Christmas. It’s a great read, hits the nail on the head, and I couldn’t have expressed the feelings better myself.

The second thing comes after the announcement earlier this week that with the Football World Cup coming up soon, England won’t be having an official song. The World Cup song is a great tradition which usually results in some pretty terrible songs coming out, but nobody cares!! It’s just a bit of fun and the chance for everyone to get together behind their team. This time as I say, they aren’t going to be doing it. Well not to worry. Within days of the announcment, the lads from Missing Andy decided to put things right and after popular demand from fans, Made In England is going to be released as the entirely unofficial England team song. It’s the best thing since Anarchy In The UK and God Save The Queen by The Pistols so get over to the campaigns Facebook page and give the lads your support!

Have a great week ahead everyone!