In its updated 1,222-page "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition" released yesterday, the US Copyright Office took the side of Wikimedia in their argument with nature photographer David Slater when the office wrote that they cannot register works by monkeys.
Cop pulled a gun on me tonight for asking a question. #ferguson …
More than two years after being arrested, injured and strip-searched after taking pictures of two NYPD police officers performing a stop and frisk, a Brooklyn man has been awarded a nice legal pay day to the tune of $125K.
One of Denmark’s most photographed attractions, a Little Mermaid statue, comes with a strange caveat: it can’t be photographed. Or rather, a photograph of it can't be used in a publication of any sort, even for journalistic purposes, without a big fat invoice finding its way to your door.
Do you have dreams of being an outspoken reviewer of photography books? Certain provinces of Iran might not be the best place for you to launch that career. A pair of Iran photographers were recently sentenced to a total of 75 lashes for publishing negative reviews about an official's photography book.
Only days after the NYPD sent out a city-wide memo to officers reminding them that the recording of their activity is allowed, Randy Credico, an upcoming candidate for New York Governor, was arrested, handcuffed and put in jail for recording the aggressive arresting of a man by two officers in street clothes.
The NYPD has sent out an internal memo that tells officers they aren’t allowed to take action to stop someone from photographing or filming them. This comes a whopping two years after Washington DC’s police chief sent out an almost identical memo.
David Slater, the photographer who is currently embroiled in an argument (and quite possibly, soon to be embroiled in a lawsuit) with Wikimedia over the famous 'monkey selfie' images, recently spoke to ITN to clarify his position on the whole 'who owns the copyright' argument.
A New Jersey police officer is making headlines for how he responded Monday to a resident taking pictures in a public building. When the resident, one Steve Wronko, explained that it was his constitutional right, the officer told Wronko that "Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so ... if he doesn't follow the constitution, we don't have to."
At least one of the class action lawsuits against Nikon about the sensor spec issue found on some D600 cameras has been settled, and settled in the best possible way for the users participating in this suit.
The controversy surrounding the monkey selfies above, which were taken by an endangered crested black macaque using photographer David Slater's equipment, is heating up once again as Wikipedia parent Wikimedia refuses to remove the photo from its commons library, claiming that Slater does not own the copyright.
This post is something I’ve struggled with for months, and debated even writing. But it’s time to share my story, and explain why I’ve been absent.
The next time you want to photograph some cool graffiti, you might want to think twice... you could get sued by the artist if that picture makes it big.
Central Iowa Boy Scout Troop No. 111 received a little more when they bargained for during their three-week road trip.
Instagram is a popular platform for celebrities to share photos of their lavish lifestyles, but it's also a social network in which many photos are published without permission and without credit to the original creator. Both of those things happened recently with an image posted by Ludacris.
Earlier this year, a New York judge ruled that US search warrants applied to digital data, even if the data wasn’t stored domestically. The ruling came about after Microsoft was asked to hand over the user information and contested the warrant because the info was stored on servers located in Dublin, Ireland.
The American Civil Liberties Union is helping four individuals take the United States Government to court over something called the Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative.
Yesterday, the story of two DJI Phantom quadcopters endangering an NYPD helicopter made the rounds online. Initial reports claimed that the two 'drones' were flying right at the helicopter forcing the NYPD pilot to take evasive action before following the Phantoms back to their source and taking the RC pilots into custody.
Last weekend, following the Fourth of July festivities, we shared a wonderful video of a Florida fireworks show as seen by a drone recording from within the show, perilously close to the colorful explosives. It wasn't the only such video to air post-Independence Day, however.
Update: Initial reports that the 'drones' flew at the helicopter may not be entirely accurate. Click here to read our followup coverage.
Recent reports claim that, in an effort to increase censorship, China has blocked Yahoo! photo sharing site Flickr alongside a number of other social media services. According to Greatfire.org, a group dedicated to keeping the Internet open for all, the site has been down since July 1st.
"This is a Satire Website. Fictional Stories Just for laughs." That's the line you'll find if you scroll to the bottom of the ODGossip website. But when they posted that the subject of an embarrassing Meme was suing Instagram for $500 million, blogs and publications the world over went ahead and ran with it.
Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.
Shot back in April, the above video shows “Ex-Cop Law Student" Andrew Wake attempting to record a seemingly routine traffic stop when a Gray County Sherriff’s Deputy eventually shows up by his side.
Three years ago, in late July of 2011, freelance news photographer Philip Datz was arrested by the Suffolk County Police Department in New York for “obstruction of governmental administration” because he was recording the conclusion of a police chase from a safe distance away.
If we've said it once, we've said a thousand times: don't post illegal activity to Instagram. Because while the photo sharing service does sometimes seem to be the domain of teenaged girls with a duck face problem and hipsters who would like to share their latte with you, the police also spend time on there.
The dangers of urban exploration photography are well-known. However, despite this danger, it’s not often we hear of any big names in Urbex photography having major accidents or run-ins with the law. That changed a bit this week when a photographer who goes by the pseudonym The Other Side shared the story of how he was threatened with serious legal consequences for photographing a partially abandoned French factory.
Editor's Note: This video contains strong language that is not suitable for viewing at work.
Although there’s no shortage of press surrounding young pop star, Justin Bieber, today he’s getting a bit more in the form of a lawsuit from photographer Manuel Munoz.
Amidst a barrage of privacy concerns, an Iranian court has ordered a ban of photo-sharing giant Instagram, reports the Associated Press.
In a lawsuit filed this Monday, Ohio-based model Nicole Forni is seeking half a million dollars in damages from Columbus photographer Joshua Resnick after he sent photographs from a shoot they collaborated on to at least three dozen pornographic-oriented web outlets.
Although the battle between drone owners and the FAA carries on in terms of definitive laws and regulations, it looks like progress is being made. According to a report by Bloomberg, the FAA is looking to expedite the handing out of permits for owners of “low-risk” drones.
In a copyright battle truly worthy of the David and Goliath designation, it seems that Walmart and its founding family, the Waltons, have filed a lawsuit against the widow of a photographer who ran a small Arkansas studio called Bob's Studio of Photography.
Is Amazon attempting to patent an age old photography lighting technique? A recently published patent seems to suggest that, and it's getting some photographers up in arms.
Back in 2012, the Republican Study Committee caused widespread debate over intellectual property law after publishing and then pulling a paper on copyright reform. Derek Khanna, the conservative staffer behind the paper, was fired by the committee shortly afterward.
Would you like to photograph the Upper Yosemite Falls by drone? Attach a GoPro to your newly-acquired DJI Phantom 2 and just have at it, capturing views that Ansel Adams would envy? Well, you can't, because it turns out "use of unmanned aircraft systems (drones)" is prohibited in Yosemite National Park.
In an effort to document the intense and widespread damage of the tornados that ripped through Arkansas this past week, storm chaser and videographer Brian Emfinger made use of a drone, flying it above the damage and rescue efforts to bring to light just how bad the damage was. Unfortunately for Emfinger, the Federal Aviation Administration may have an issue with his drone use.
"This crap is why I can't make a timelapse landscape of Chicago." That's the title of a video and Reddit post by Chicago-based photographer Benn Jordan that shows the scary situation he found himself in recently while trying to capture a time-lapse of South Chicago.
In the beginning of April, Sydney-based photographer Rohan Anderson found himself embroiled in a nasty back-and-forth with the band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus over a photo of his they had used without credit or permission.
Excessive Photoshopping has gotten a lot of press in recent years, and anti-Photoshop advocates might finally get what they've been seeking thanks to a new bill that just hit Congress.
Four years after the “unlawful seizure and destruction” of video from a citizen's phone took place, and thanks to some pressure from the US Department of Justice, The City of Baltimore has agreed to pay a fine to the tune of $250,000 to set things right.
There are two sides to every story, but in the case of Ohio copy machine repairman and aerial videography hobbyist Kele Stanley, his side is drastically different from that of the police who arrested him for flying his camera drone over the site of a car crash.
A widely-reported legal case involving a same-sex couple and the photography studio that refused to shoot their wedding reached its conclusion earlier today when the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, putting an end to nearly eight years of litigation.
In a somewhat interesting turn of events regarding an extremely well-known photograph of former football star Desmond Howard, it has been settled that Howard will now be owner of the photograph, originally captured by photographer Brian Masck.
Following up on a story we shared a couple of months ago, it seems we now have TWO examples of police officers facing consequences for dealing with photographers unprofessionally.
Well this is awkward... We're all for people advocating for copyright law and making sure that people at least understand that it's bad to steal other people's intellectual property, but if you're going to do it, you might want to follow your own rules.
In the age of the Internet, with sites like Yelp often being the first stop for anybody looking for a service (say, photography) they've never used before, it's no surprise that pros are trying to keep their star ratings as high as possible.
"Re-Photographer" Richard Prince is back in the spotlight again -- this time hopefully for the final time -- after a final settlement was reached in his five-year-long legal back-and-forth with photographer Patrick Cariou.
Nikon has probably had just about enough when it comes to the D600 and its sensor dust/oil issues. It started with user complaints, evolved to class action lawsuits from a number of different sources, and has now escalated to a full-on order by the Chinese government to stop D600 sales in China after a state-run television show featured a scathing exposé about the issue.
After four years in court, the district court of Tokyo has ordered Sigma to pay up for their infringement of Nikon's VR lens-stabilization technology to the tune of 1.5 billion yen -- or about 14.5 million USD.
