Back in January, Canon Italia posted a photo without credit (and shot on a Fuji) on their Instagram and Facebook. The response from the community was fierce, and Canon’s response only made things worse. Now Elia Locardi, the photographer behind the original photo, has decided to take the case to court.
Internet “entrepreneur” shocked that copyright owner sued him for stealing their work
This is one of those stories you couldn’t make up if you tried. Most people, especially content creators, such as those with YouTube followings of 60K+ people know that much of the Internet is copyrighted. That just because an image appears in a Google Images search result does not mean that it’s free to use. It’s just plain common sense. At least, one would think so.
But YouTuber and Internet “entrepreneur” (that word is so overused these days), Dan Dasilva had to learn this the hard way. After stealing a photographer’s work, the photographer, the legal copyright owner, sued him and won. Dan, though, seems to believe he’s the victim n all this. The victim of a “malicious” photographer.
The monkey selfie case finally ends in settlement
We reported a while ago that the monkey selfie case could come to an end. And finally, this happened. After two years of court battle, David Slater, PETA and Slater’s co-defendant Blurb have reached a settlement. Slater has agreed to donate 25% of any future revenue from the famous selfies to charities that protect the habitats of crested macaques.
Family of camera assistant killed while shooting on train tracks awarded over $11 million
Midnight Rider was to be a biographical movie on the journey of Gregg Allman. From struggling artist to the eventual success of the Allman Brothers Band. Then the realisation that he needs to get clean or risk losing his life. It was tragically ironic, then, that filming for this movie actually did cause somebody to lose their life.
On February 20th, 2014, 27 year old camera assistant, Sarah Jones, was hit and killed by a train while filming on tracks. After a three year legal battle, a Savannah court yesterday awarded Jones’ family with $11.2 million. Oddly, though, the court determined that CSX, the train company, are liable for 35% of that, or around $3.92 million.
Federal appeals court rules that you have a constitutional right to photograph police officers
Photographing and filming the police is an often touchy topic. Mostly due to a lack of education on the part of some police officers. These officers (and it is a tiny minority) seem unaware of the actual laws regarding it. Or, they outright lie and say it is illegal, sometimes to the point of allegedly beating those filming them unsonscious.
Now, a panel of judges fro the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that this falls under the First Amendment. An individual’s right to film police officers in the performance of their duties has constitutional protection. The decision involves two instances where civilians had attempted to film Philadelphia police officers, and were retaliated against.
Laguna Beach changes Non-Commercial photo permit rule after complaints of the public
The news that LagunaBeach requires a permit for shooting in public places has caused a lot of stir. After strong reactions from the public, it turns out that the problem was – inaccurate choice of words.
Laguna Beach Assistant City Manager Christa Johnson told OCWeekly that the permit only applies who photographers and filmmakers who receive compensation for their work. So, the City Council simply changed the “Non-Commercial Photo Permit” to be “Professional Still Photo Permit.” You still need to pay if you want to shoot, but apparently – only if you are paid for photo or video work.
Public places now demand a permit, obey or face court and fines
Shooting in public places is generally allowed and you shouldn’t have any problems with the authorities. However, if you plan a photo shoot in the City of Laguna Beach, whether commercial or non-commercial, be ready to file for a permit. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay a fine.
A photographer recently had a photoshoot on the beach, when a ranger approached him. It turned out he needed a permit to take shots, although he was shooting in a public place. A friend of the photographer, Thien Dinh, shared the story with us. Considering this is one of his favorite shooting locations, this affects him too, as well as many other photographers.
Photographer mom shared a photo of her son and his father in a shower – and now she’s going to court
Heather Whitten, a photographer and a mom, recently shared a photo of her husband taking care of their sick son. She captured the dad taking care of the boy in the shower. The photo caused millions of positive reactions all over the internet, but a single negative one was enough to send her to court. A single individual sent a complaint to local authorities in Arizona, resulting in Heather and her husband being investigated for neglect.
German photographer sues Facebook over image metadata stripping and wins
It’s long been known that Facebook strips the metadata from photographs and other images that are uploaded. I’ve never seen an official answer from Facebook as to why they do this, but the leading theory seems to be one of privacy. With 136,000 images being uploaded to Facebook every single minute, that’s a lot of potential GPS and other private information. But it does also total up to a lot of potentially wasted storage space, too.
Photographers have moaned against the removal of metadata for a while, but German photographers association, Freelens, and specifically, Freelens executive committee member and Berlin photographer, Rainer Steußloff has challenged this practice in court. The ruling came in a few days ago, and the photographer won. It is now illegal for Facebook to strip metadata in Germany.
NYPD Wants to Charge a TV News Network $36,000 for Body Camera Footage
Events such as Ferguson led to increased usage of body cameras in police departments across the U.S., but as the cameras’ popularity soars so do the questions about who owns the footage and how much of it should be made available to the public.
As Arstechnica reports, one question hasn’t been discussed as often – how much should it cost to obtain the footage from the wearable cameras under state open-access laws – and as a Time Warner Cable News operation found out, it’s currently ridiculously expensive.
As one might expected, the matter is now going to court.
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