Take A Moment, Write A Few Letters, Sign The Petition

Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act

Dear Copyright Advocate,
This letter is about a bill that has been introduced in the Senate that will combat online infringement of copyrighted works. It’s called the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act” or “COICA”. ASMP encourages you to sign a petition in favor of the bill.
Though some photographers have already done this, our efforts have not been enough.
The opponents of this bill have been active in mobilizing the masses to speak out against it. The result of their efforts is that it seems like the public is against this bill. Yet, we all hear everyday about how websites are illegally posting your creative works for others to take and how this affects your livelihood.
This bill would benefit all artists and creators! TAKE ACTION TODAY! Stand up for your rights!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Speak up on blogs and listservs. Artists who speak out in favor of the bill on a website are often verbally attacked. Musicians, photographers and other artists need your support on this effort. Post blogs and comments on your own websites or on websites where you see these attacks.
2. Contact your Senator and House Representative. Tell your congressional representatives to vote YES to the bill. Tell them your story and how piracy and infringement affect you.
   To find and email your Senator, go here.
   To find and email your House Representative, go here.
3. Tweet this: Stop online piracy of art, music, movies, books, all creative works. Vote yes to Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act #COICA
4. Facebook this: The U.S. Congress is debating a bill that could help millions of artists around the world. If passed, the bill would allow the government to target and shut down “internet sites dedicated to infringing activities” which are “primarily designed” to access unauthorized copyrighted material. Tell your representatives to vote YES to the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA).

WHAT IS THIS BILL ABOUT?

1. Check out this short video by independent filmmaker Ellen Seidler as she talks about how websites that are illegally hosting her movie are profiting. Yet, she is losing money. This bill will help shut down websites like these.
2. The bill will not target minor violations of copyright. It will target “internet sites dedicated to infringing activities” that are “primarily designed” to offer or provide access to copyrighted material “without the authorization of the copyright owner.”
3. The Attorney General will be able to request a court order to suspend the domain names of U.S.-based infringing websites. For non-U.S.-based websites, the Attorney General will be able to request a court order to require the ISPs to block the website. Credit card companies and networks providing ads to these sites will also suspend all activity with the infringing sites.
4. A list of all the domain names that are found to be infringing copyright protected content will be posted on a “publicly available Internet site, together with other relevant information, in order to inform the public.”

REMEMBER PILFERED MAGAZINE?
Last February we made you aware of Pilfered Magazine, an online magazine that freely took images from photographers without their permission and didn’t credit or compensate the photographers. Because of your emails, Tweets, and postings on blogs and Facebook, the magazine was shut down in a weekend and has never reopened.
It is important that we take collective action on this bill too. Pilfered is not the only website that hosts and offers infringing material. This bill will help remove other websites like Pilfered from the internet.
ONE VOI©E: SPEAK UP FOR CREATORS’ RIGHTS

Via Rob @ APE

Update to Social Media & Photographers

As an update to yesterday's post regarding the benefits & perils of social media and intellectual property rights, I find the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) has published a guide for photographers using these services. You can find ASMP's Best Practice Recommendations For Social Networking Sites here.

From the ASMP site:

• In response to member requests, ASMP commissioned attorney Chris Reese to undertake a review of the Terms of Service (TOS) of six social media sites and to prepare findings and recommendations. The sites included in his assessment are Facebook, Photobucket, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter. This report presents recommended best practices, considerations, common terms used, and hypothetical situations photographers may face when images are posted on social networking sites.

  
  
  Take a few moments to read the article. You'll be glad you did.
  
  
  Thanks again to Leslie at the Burns Auto Parts Blog for the find.

ASMP Launches dpBestflow

The American Society of Media Photographers has launched a new website outlining & defining standards & best practices for all aspects of the digital photography workflow, from color management to file delivery, for the working photographer. Long in the forefront (and often mired in internal politics), ASMP's newest innovation towards education and standardization of business practices is the result of a two year effort by members Richard Anderson & Peter Krogh and debuted earlier this week during the FotoweekDC events. dpBestflow, in addition to the most informative website, will also include a book/manual as well as a travelling seminar series.

As we are all digital photographers in some form or another these days, spend some time at the website... learn the best practices and guidelines and apply them to the way you handle your d-workflow. You can find dpBestflow.org here:

http:dpbestflow.org

Roundtable Anyone?

I have been giving this idea some thought for several years now... Here on Maui, we don't have a local chapter of any of the trade organizations for commercial & editorial photographers. No ASMP... no APA... no EP. Now that we no longer shoot film and gather at the local commercial lab every afternoon to collect our daily processing runs, we rarely even have opportunities for any sort of face to face meetings. 

This is a sad thing to me, especially given the ever increasing demands for rights from clients without the formerly customary compensation for those rights. I feel we can all collectively benefit from a regular opportunity to gather on some sort of regular basis, whether it be monthly, every two months... whatever, and discuss what's good about our respective businesses, what's happening within our industry, within the statewide editorial & advertising marketplace, problems we are facing in conducting sound & time-honored business practices, strategize on ways to face head on the coming issues surrounding use & the new digital media, occasionally present our recent work to friends & colleague & shoot the shit in general...

I propose some form of regular gathering of those of us who call ourselves freelance creatives... my main interest of course would be a gathering of photographers working primarily in the editorial & commercial realms of our industry (sorry wedding/portrait folks... you do have a local group). That said, there is a community of freelance writers, graphic designers, illustrators, etc. out there whom I'm certain find themselves without any sort of loosely organized support network. I would suggest that our meetings, should they eventually come to fruition, be open to these artists as well. After all, we do share many of the same industry concerns and business practices. In addition to working freelancers, I would also suggest that aspiring and seasoned assistants also be welcomed into the fold as they, too, are an essential part of our businesses and will all eventually go on to be photographic freelancers.

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Anyone willing to chime in on the matter? I would even offer my Wailuku studio as a place for these meetings to be held, though perhaps some sort of neutral ground like a restaurant or cafe might be a more appropriate venue. I'll leave that topic open for suggestion & discussion.

Anyone interested in seeing a regular or semi-regular gathering of this sort get established, feel free to either leave a comment here at the blog entry or contact me by email at:

photoho@hawaiiantel.net

Be sure to include some means for me to contact you. And by all means, be sure to pass along this idea for a regular gathering to those industry colleagues that you know. There IS strength in numbers.

Words To Live By

"When the gong gets weird, the weird turn pro..."

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson first committed that phrase to print many moons ago. Though he was talking about the profession of journalism, these words of wisdom seem equally applicable to the professional photographic industry. And the going has been pretty weird around these parts for some time now... slow times for most of us... increasing attempts at rights-grabs from publications trying to capitalize on our fears, self-doubt, fragile egos, insecurities, and the ever-pressing need to keep eating... advertisers demanding buy-outs of copyright for no additional compensation and a hungry mass of colleagues either uneducated in the business practices that were long ago established by organizations like ASMP, APA and other trade groups or willing to toss them aside in hopes of landing an assignment to keep the bills paid.

It's quite a pickle we all find ourselves in these days. Do we knuckle under and give in to the demands in hopes that we keep on working, cut our fees in hopes that the low bidder wins the assignment?

The only wisdom I can dispense on the matter is this: There is absolutely no value in being known as the cheapest guy on the block. While a low-pricing strategy will, in some circumstances, win you an extra assignment or two... in the long run, you will end up working harder for less, you will find yourself displeased with the end results because you've been forced into cutting corners production value-wise, and worst of all, you will end up pigeonholed as the guy that works for cheap. Next time that client calls for an assignment, don't ever count on getting a better fee because you did it for less the first time out. Is that how you want client's to remember you?

Sure, times are tough for everyone these days. It makes a little sense to attempt to work with art buyers, cutting expense items where it's possible to do so without compromising the quality of your work. I encourage you to make sure you're not the only one involved in the project that has to make those cuts. There are several options available to us when it come to negotiating fees, use licenses, etc. If you're forced out of necessity and a need to pay the mortgage to cut your fee, try to limit the licensing period or media inclusions in exchange, try to get a substantial deposit prior to commencing production on the project or an agreement for payment immediately upon delivery, try to get commitments for future projects... you get my drift here... tit for tat. Otherwise, it's the photographers that end up being the chumps.

You must act like a pro, even when times get weird, if you want to be taken seriously when this economic shitstorm eventually passes. Get thee over to the ASMP website when you have some downtime and scroll through the free, printable papers on business practices for the professional photographer. You can find them here. You'll find lots of helpful info regarding business practices, negotiating, copyright registration, self-promotion, digital workflow, keywording & meta-data, legal issues, forms, etc. You owe it to yourself to spend a little time either re-reviewing some of this information, if for no other reason, to remind yourself that you have chosen a profession... it's a business and as a business, has it's own sets of practices, legalities, etc, unique to that profession. Those of you relatively new to the business of professional photography... I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for you to make yourself familiar with this information.

Over at the APA website, there is also a wealth of information on these matters found here.

So... when YOUR going gets weird... make sure you deal with it like a pro!

A Portrait & a Link

Today started with an early morning portrait session, a bank executive head-shot... straight forward, vanilla, color portrait of a smiling man in a suit (and aloha shirt just to be safe).

Fortunately, I left all the lighting set-up in place when a friend dropped by to share some wisdom & combustibles and I was able to beg, coerce and otherwise flog him into sitting down in front of the lens for a few minutes. A quick re-tweaking of the lights into a configuration a little less revealing and 15 minutes later, there was a very fun series of very expressive portraits, though I don't quite know exactly what it it they are expressing. Thanks to Ray Gooliak, musician, songwriter & recording artist for enduring my abuse & cajoling and contributing his considerable talents, wrinkles and follicle-challenged skull to yield the two images above.

On a completely different note, Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua is a name that has appeared on this blog on several other occasions. Leslie is a photographer's business consultant of wide repute & publisher of the website Burns Auto Parts. This is not a place to find parts for your broken down jalopy. The website contains lots of interesting and very helpful materials, advice, books all pertaining to the business & marketing of commercial & editorial photography. You can also find a link to her "Super Premium Blog" and it is well worth a read.

Leslie is at it again. This time... over at the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) website, you will find a 25 minute video clip of a presentation Leslie made to ASMP members recently. You don't need to be a member to view the video... just click on the link here. In the video presentation, Ms. Burns Dell'Acqua discusses how to fine-tune your website and portfolio for bigger bang and better impact. Grab a cuppa and spend a few minutes of precious time watching the video. You'll be glad you did.