Archive for the ‘Visual Art’ Category
Tsk, Tsk: Fox’s Photo Faux Pas
Monica Hesse. Hey, Isn’t That . . . WashingtonPost.com. Jan. 9, 2008. Just a few months after the the Alison Chang/Flickr photo contretemps threatened Creative Commons with legal action (which later was rescinded), the Fox network is outed for broadcasting pet photos that belong to someone else without the photo owners’ permission. Most will suggest turnabout is fair play, but we’re more concerned with the vehemence with which the photo owner exclaims “It’s my photo!” This is a rhetorical question, but we’ll ask away: how is it that words like “mine,” “ownership,” and “control” have become so pervasive in an environment that allows unprecedented access to creative work?
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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Defending Museums’ Right to Ban Photography
Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection. Museums are Not the Enemy and the Red Herring of Copyright Law to Prohibit Photography. Dec. 11, 2007. Following Boing Boing’s June 2007 thread about museums banning photography for copyright reasons, Hawk says, essentially, pshaw!!
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Dec. 18, 2007, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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Ninth Circuit Allows Thumbnails, Overturns Google Injunction
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed an injunction against Google that prohibited it from facilitating access to images via thumbnails. The plaintiff in the case, Perfect 10, Inc., an owner and publisher of adult images, sued Google and Amazon.com for copyright infringement in November 2004.
In the summer of 2005, Perfect 10 asked a federal district court to levy a preliminary injunction against Google to keep the search engine provider from “copying, reproducing, distributing, publicly displaying, adapting or otherwise infringing, or contributing to the infringement of Perfect 10’s photographs …” The district court granted Perfect 10’s injunction request against both Google and Amazon. Both Google and Amazon appealed, leading to the Circuit Court’s decision.
The case is Perfect 10 vs Amazon.com, and Google, Inc., CV-06-55405. (.pdf)
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Joke’s On Whom?
So now Jay Leno alleges that printing his jokes in a book compilation amounts to copyright infringement. (No, that’s not the opening to a joke.) Forget the fundamental question of whether or not these (or any other) jokes have been fixed in a tangible medium of expression. That such a lawsuit is being heard at all in federal court merely points to how ludicrously unbalanced copyright law has become.
Leslie Simmons. Comedians Allege Joke Compilations Infringe. The Hollywood Reporter. Nov. 30, 2006.
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Georgia Tech Develops Image Stifling System
“As the bootlegging of first-run movies increases, with the availability of inexpensive digital cameras, there should be a way to thwart them, says Gregory Abowd, associate professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. To do this, he and his team have developed a device that can detect the presence of a digital camera or camcorder — and keep it from capturing usable images.
“Researchers have been trying to develop effective ways to jam a camera for years, says Edward Delp, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. A number of companies, including Philips, Thomson, and Apogen Technologies, as well as a handful of universities, have been working on projects and prototypes. The Georgia Tech approach, which combines methods of detecting a camera and the means to automatically prevent it from taking pictures is “a nice technology,” says Delp, that achieves these two goals in one device, while also using infrared light to spot cameras, in contrast to some other combination systems.”
Kate Greene. Lights, Camera — Jamming. Technology Review. June 22, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
- Georgia Tech Research News. No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System to Thwart Unwanted Video and Still Photography. (Press release.) June 17, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Did People Intentionally Leak Jolie-Pitt Baby Photos?
“After winning the very expensive rights to the first photographs of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the editors at People magazine formed a publicity plan.
“Instead, days before their official publication, the pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt cuddling their days-old infant first appeared on Gawker, PerezHilton.com and about two dozen other gossip blogs and Web sites. Some photos were taken from a bootleg copy of Hello! magazine, which had obtained the rights in Britain to the photos for a reported $3.5 million. Others that appeared later were from copies of People that the magazine says may have been stolen before official distribution. Within an hour of the first postings, lawyers for the magazine began unleashing cease-and-desist letters to the offending Web sites.
“But did the Internet publication of the pictures really undermine People’s publicity plan?”
Julie Bosman. In Web Era, Big Money Can’t Buy an Exclusive. The New York Times. June 12, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Pornographers Against Piracy
“What worries Jason Tucker, a new breed of pornographer that heads Falcon Foto, isn’t the possibility of a raid on Falcon’s studio — a 40-acre farm north of Los Angeles — or a congressional hearing scrutinizing his industry. It’s piracy. Falcon, which he runs with his former-model wife, Gail Harris, owns the rights to more than 2 million photos and 350 videos.
“At a recent shoot at the ranch, Tucker is livid after learning that a Falcon-owned photo appeared in a magazine without authorization, having been downloaded from the Internet.
“The pornography business, once relegated to a dark corner of the media world, has become a powerful, if unlikely, ally with mainstream Hollywood in the battle against digital piracy. But where mainstream companies fret endlessly before deciding how to proceed with new technologies and business models, the never-bashful porn industry is making some moves that may well show the way for Hollywood.”
BusinessWeek Online. The Pornographers vs. The Pirates. June 19, 2006.
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