Freelance paparazzi photographer Paul Raef was arrested back on July 6th after chasing Justin Bieber on 101 Freeway, becoming the first person charged under a new anti-paparazzi law signed by former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Raef is currently facing four misdemeanors, with two of them being “following another vehicle too closely and reckless driving, with the intent to capture pictures for commercial gain.” The punishment is up to one year in jail and $3,500 in fines.
The Los Angeles Times reports that his lawyers are now trying to have the anti-paparazzi law declared as unconstitutional, saying that it specifically and unfairly targets a certain group of news gatherers. Read more…
Here’s a quick update by Gary Fong on the wedding photographer who’s being threatened with a $300,000 lawsuit by a client who says that he didn’t like the images. The photographer’s name is Nelson Tang, and we learn that Tang has received a followup letter that appeared at first glance to be a lawsuit, but lacked a necessary court stamp at the bottom. This messy case has going viral online and has everyone shouting “extortion”.
Photographer and entrepreneur Gary Fong was recently contacted by a wedding photographer who found himself in a pickle: after doing a “great job” (in Fong’s opinion) in shooting a wedding, he received a menacing letter from the couple threatening him with a $300,000 lawsuit. The video above shows Fong reading the letter — which sounds an awful lot like blackmail — and explaining some of the mistakes made by the photographer. The main takeaway: always sign a contract!
The University of California has agreed to dish out a $162,500 settlement to David Morse, a 43-year-old photographer who was arrested back in 2009 while covering a student protest. The SF Chronicle writes,
[The suit] an officer told Morse, “We want your camera. We believe your camera contains evidence of a crime.”
The officers ignored his press pass and arrested him and seven others on suspicion of rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson of an occupied building, vandalism, and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, the suit said.
Morse spent the night in jail. Prosecutors declined to file charges.
But police obtained a search warrant and used several of his photos in brochures and online in hopes that the public could identify individuals.
As part of the settlement, the police department has also agreed to modify its procedures regarding seeking materials from journalists and will be conducting training sessions teaching its officers about media rights.
China News reports that Panasonic is seeking a refund of their contract, worth 9,910,014 yuan (about $1,559,181.51 USD) plus another million yuan ($157,334 USD) in damages for the leak: a serious trade secret violation that Panasonic also said would affect their marketing plans and strategies. The ad agency in charge of the Panasonic campaign, McCann Shanghai, countersued Panasonic, saying the terminated contract is unlawful and the terms of their contract were met.
Minority owner of the recently-crowned national champion Miami Heat, Raanan Katz, has been making waves all over the Internet the past few days over a controversial lawsuit regarding a photo of himself that he has deemed unflattering (seen above). The lawsuit is directed at both the originating blogger and Google (who refused to take down the photo), and according to paidContent, Katz is requesting that damages be paid him by both parties. Read more…
Backing up your photos is always a good idea, but if your storage device failed and the photos you lost consisted of some very precious family memories, would you hold the hard drive company responsible? Lawyer Perminder Tung would, which is why he is currently suing Apple over the photos of his first child’s birth that were lost when his Apple Time Capsule failed. Read more…
When photographer Mannie Garcia — known best, perhaps, for his iconic photograph of President Obama — was arrested for disorderly conduct while recording Maryland police officers performing an arrest, he didn’t realize that it would mean the loss of his White House credentials. And although he was eventually acquitted and given back his camera (with the memory card missing), the damage had already been done and Garcia is looking to hold someone accountable. Read more…
A couple of weeks ago, reports confirmed that Olympus ex-CEO Michael Woodford would be settling with his former employer out of court rather than taking them to task for his unfair dismissal. Woodford was let go after blowing the whistle on Olympus’ financial scandal, but now it seems he will have the last laugh as The New York Times has finally put a figure to the settlement: $15.4 Million.
To make matters worse for the financially unstable Olympus, previous rumors that Panasonic would be investing in the company and becoming its biggest shareholder are being flatly denied by president Fumio Ohtsubo. That doesn’t mean Olympus isn’t still searching for an investor, but Panasonic — who just days ago seemed like Olympus’ knight in shining armor — is definitely out.
Update: Apparently, after hearing the Montreal Gazette’s response and suffering a rough social media backlash, Labatt have decided to back off and not pursue the issue any further. You can find all of the details here.
We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if your company logo showed up in a picture of an alleged killer? Chances are you wouldn’t be too thrilled with any of the 1000 words that picture was generating.
That’s the situation beer company Labatt recently found itself in because of a photo of murder suspect Luka Magnotta publicized in the Montreal Gazette. Magnotta was recently accused of murdering a Chinese engineering student, dismembering the body and mailing the parts to political parties — and in said photo(seen above) he is drinking a Labatt Blue. Needless to say, Labatt isn’t happy with what the picture is doing for their company image. Read more…
