Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: wolfnowl on August 19, 2009, 01:50:23 am

Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: wolfnowl on August 19, 2009, 01:50:23 am
This from 'Burning Man' (http://www.burningman.com (http://www.burningman.com))

The article: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/08/snatching-rights-playa (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/08/snatching-rights-playa)

The reply: http://blog.burningman.com/?p=4599 (http://blog.burningman.com/?p=4599)

Mike.
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: Christopher Sanderson on August 19, 2009, 09:45:05 am
A fascinating discussion with Rights and Privileges clearly stated on both sides. It is easy to see the 'justice' of each sides's arguments.

At the end of the day, we can relax 'protected' by The Law or choose to rely for the defence of our rights on an active conscience, reasoned discussion and an equitable judgment.
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: RSL on August 19, 2009, 12:15:56 pm
The answer seems fairly obvious: stay away from burning man.
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: Rob C on August 19, 2009, 01:48:27 pm
Quote from: RSL
The answer seems fairly obvious: stay away from burning man.





Yes, that would solve the problem, but would also accept that it is a problem, even though it could well be avoided from so being. (I imagine this to be the case, but I could just as easily be an innocent adrift on a sea of deceit which turns out to be nothing more exotic than the chase of another dollar and the preparing of the ground -  sandy knoll, let's just call it  - in pursuit of that buck.) Why not reduce it to simplistic terms and chat about model releases? I would have thought that could take care of the personal rights that might be considered abused.

Of course, that would fly in the face of the divine right of all snappers to snap at whatever takes their fancy, whether with permission or otherwise, but it might be an equitable way of keeping all parties happy. On the face of it, the incandescent hombre would appear to be a form of private property (at least in his currency as an intellectual right by virtue of his invention and recognized nomenclature); as such, could he not be be presumed to have rights of his own? Should these be in my imagination alone, then possibly my imagination has a morality which the legal situation might lack?  Or does a legal position not require a moral raison d'étre?

So wouldn´t a happy solution be the use of releases as suggested, both personal and in the sense of the identity of the event?

I have to confess, though a photographer by trade myself, the notion of photographer´s rights has often appeared to me to be extended in argument well beyond the reasonable.

No, not an invitation to an exchange of vitriol or a match of IQ ratings (way too complex for me to understand) but simply a view formed over quite a long time, this thing about rights.

Ciao

Rob C
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: dalethorn on August 19, 2009, 01:53:28 pm
Quote from: Rob C
No, not an invitation to an exchange of vitriol or a match of IQ ratings (way too complex for me to understand) but simply a view formed over quite a long time, this thing about rights.
Ciao
Rob C

I think it's simpler than all that. The pocket cameras and cellphones are going to get the picture regardless, and distribute it on the xyz social networks regardless, and only the erstwhile "pros" with the big iron are going to be left standing there explaining (something), or worrying about "how do I link to these images from luminous landscape?"
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: dalethorn on August 19, 2009, 02:04:01 pm
A second thought.  And I'll probably get beat up for this, but here goes anyway:

Imagine two scenarios: One, the current USA, with a few (usually) cautious people walking around with guns in their pockets. The second scenario is also the USA, but with everyone walking around with guns in their pockets (for you outsiders, it's nothing like that today, honestly).

Now you can imagine the problems with social order with the second scenario.  But in the world of photography, everyone is being armed, and with better and more concealable equipment all the time.  The horse is out of the barn.  Unless someone comes up with a vast new layer of Web censorship, like we have for television, radio, and big-city newspapers, the only issue is how to design the litigation.  Maybe create a new class of lawsuit designers.
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: RSL on August 19, 2009, 02:19:30 pm
Quote from: Rob C
Yes, that would solve the problem, but would also accept that it is a problem, even though it could well be avoided from so being. (I imagine this to be the case, but I could just as easily be an innocent adrift on a sea of deceit which turns out to be nothing more exotic than the chase of another dollar and the preparing of the ground -  sandy knoll, let's just call it  - in pursuit of that buck.) Why not reduce it to simplistic terms and chat about model releases? I would have thought that could take care of the personal rights that might be considered abused.

Of course, that would fly in the face of the divine right of all snappers to snap at whatever takes their fancy, whether with permission or otherwise, but it might be an equitable way of keeping all parties happy. On the face of it, the incandescent hombre would appear to be a form of private property (at least in his currency as an intellectual right by virtue of his invention and recognized nomenclature); as such, could he not be be presumed to have rights of his own? Should these be in my imagination alone, then possibly my imagination has a morality which the legal situation might lack?  Or does a legal position not require a moral raison d'étre?

So wouldn´t a happy solution be the use of releases as suggested, both personal and in the sense of the identity of the event?

I have to confess, though a photographer by trade myself, the notion of photographer´s rights has often appeared to me to be extended in argument well beyond the reasonable.

No, not an invitation to an exchange of vitriol or a match of IQ ratings (way too complex for me to understand) but simply a view formed over quite a long time, this thing about rights.

Ciao

Rob C

Rob, I think the real concern is money rather than photographers' rights. The organizers want any revenue stream associated with images of the festival. For a look at some of the other things the burning man group is primarily concerned about check http://www.burningman.com/preparation/even...nforcement.html (http://www.burningman.com/preparation/event_survival/law_enforcement.html). Their extreme concern about law enforcement is well founded since the gathering essentially is Woodstock redux.
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: cmi on August 19, 2009, 03:22:10 pm
Burning man is one of the coolest things out there. Eff's article assumes hostility on BM's side, but the BM rebuttal makes their intentions crystal clear. They use these regulations to actually protect the event. Bravo to them. Thanks wolfnowl for sharing this interesting example.

Christian
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: dalethorn on August 19, 2009, 04:19:54 pm
Quote from: RSL
Rob, I think the real concern is money rather than photographers' rights. The organizers want any revenue stream associated with images of the festival. For a look at some of the other things the burning man group is primarily concerned about check http://www.burningman.com/preparation/even...nforcement.html (http://www.burningman.com/preparation/event_survival/law_enforcement.html). Their extreme concern about law enforcement is well founded since the gathering essentially is Woodstock redux.

No, it's not money, it's protecting a culture.  Like the French trying to protect their language from foreign corruption.  Feel free to agree or disagree on the value of trying to protect a culture from unwanted corruption, but at least try to understand that conserving and nurturing culture is very important to some people.
Title: Photographer's Rights
Post by: BFoto on April 11, 2010, 08:42:38 pm
Seems change might be in the wind.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/burningman/ (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/burningman/)