California Governor Gavin Newsom has quietly signed a new law that exempts freelance photographers and some other types of independent contractors from the controversial AB 5 law that forced a huge range of freelancers to become employees.
The NPPA is suing California over the state's controversial Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), saying the law forces independent contractors like photographers and visual journalists to "become employees of their clients," whether or not this is preferable or even feasible.
Scoopshot is trying to transform the way companies purchase photos and the way freelance photographers find work. In August, we reported that the startup had launched an app that allows smartphone users to easily sell their photos from their phone. Since then, the company has paid out more than $300,000 to participating photographers, and reports that over 60 of its users have earned more than $1,000 by selling their phone photos (one user has earned more than $23,000)
Now, the service is setting its sights on a different group of photographers: professional freelancers. It has launched Scoopshot Pro, a service that connects photo buyers with photo makers for commissioned projects.
Freelancers often have to deal with the difficult challenge of trying to satisfy vaguely stated requests from clients, and also the frustration of meeting new requirements that aren't revealed until after the work is "completed". The video above is an interesting social experiment by Don't Get Screwed Over that attempts to show people what these freelance horror stories feel like to the people getting "screwed over".