Canipre — short for Canadian Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement — is a Canadian anti-piracy company that has joined hand-in-hand with film studios and record companies to track down those who steal and share stolen content over the internet. On the surface there’s nothing wrong with this, what is wrong is when an intellectual property advocate is found using photos without permission, which is exactly what happened to Canipre a couple of days ago. Read more…
A “copyright land-grab” that will “permit the commercial exploitation of [orphan] images” and lead to a “firestorm” of litigation. Those are the terms being used by some to describe a UK bill that just received Royal Assent last week, despite drawing fire from writers and photographers the world over. Read more…
While browsing the internet recently, SportsShooter user Greg Bartram stumbled on an eBay store that was selling prints of several of his images. Upon taking a closer look, he realized that it wasn’t just him, ukgobigblueuk is selling 8x10s of just about any sports, celebrity or political photo he can get his hands on — and according to his description, he can “more than likely” get his hands on any photo you want. Read more…
There’s a fine line between fair use, copyright infringement, and downright theft. And while some might argue where exactly that line stands, “rephotographer” and appropriation artist Richard Prince just got a Federal Appeals Court to take his side in what may turn out to be a landmark ruling regarding fair use. Read more…
Andy Baio has some experience with copyright infringement, especially where iconic photographs are concerned. In case you didn’t read our previous coverage on the matter, his story goes something like this: in 2009, he put together an 8-bit version of Miles Davis’ album “Kind of Blue” called “Kind of Bloop,” and for the cover art he had a friend create a pixel-art version of Jay Maisel‘s famous cover photo.
Maisel wound up suing Baio for over $100,000 for the infringement, and despite an offer for free representation, potential court costs still forced Baio to settle out of court for $32,500. Baio wound up writing a long blog post about the matter, and now, a couple of years later, he’s expanded on that post in the above talk he gave at Creative Mornings in Portland. Read more…
In 1991, photographer Brian Masck took one of the most iconic photographs in all of sports. Known forevermore as the “Trophy Pose,” it captured then Michigan Wolverine Desmond Howard striking a Heisman pose IRL. Since it was taken, the photo has been used by everyone from EA to Nissan to Sports Illustrated, and several of them are now being sued by Masck for using the photo without his permission — including Desmond Howard himself. Read more…
The National Press Photographers Association has decided to throw their hat in the ring with 15 other organizations that are all suing Google over what they see as “widespread, well-publicized, and uncompensated infringement of exclusive rights” perpetrated by the search giant’s Google Books program. Read more…
Want to turn your friend’s Facebook photograph into a mug to sip your morning coffee from? A new service called Photos At My Door can help you do that. It’s an app that can access any of your Facebook friends’ public photographs and turn them into products ranging from photo prints and canvases to mugs and mouse pads.
If the thought of having your photos sold as commercial products without your permission makes you uncomfortable, you’re not alone: the app is attracting criticism for it’s apparently flippant views on photo copyrights.
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This famous photograph of legendary football wide receiver Desmond Howard is currently in the midst of a nasty legal battle. The photographer behind the image, Brian Masck, is suing Howard and a host of companies, claiming that his photo has been used without his permission for years for all kinds of commercial products and purposes.
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The most recent copyright dispute to hit our radar is one between Canada-based Barbara Ann Studios and an Ottawa radio station called HOT 89.9. Each spring, the radio station runs a contest in which they get a couple married in 24-hours.
Ann isn’t a big fan of the contest, and so when she saw her image was being used to illustrate the station’s marketing kit, she began a dialogue with the company to get the image taken down and receive compensation for what amounted to commercial use of her image. That’s when things got ugly. Read more…
