It is with much trepidation that we dive into this topic. It is very hard to just dip your toe into the graffiti water without jumping in the pool. The use of graffiti – plural for graffito – as either background or integral to a photo shoot is fraught with easily avoidable peril. We suggest […]
The two of us love great quotes, like almost every quoted line in Young Frankenstein (what’s not to love). Here’s one by the great writer Henry James (1843 – 1916) that is not as famous as Igor’s “What hump?”, but probably more meaningful for this column – “She had an unequalled gift, usually pen in […]
Nobody but nobody enjoys reading an insurance policy. Companies like GEICO know that and make effective commercials which rely on humor. Indeed famed actor Dennis Quaid is on a “mission to make insurance interesting” in his TV commercials for Esurance. Photographers and producers are no different than other people/businesses who pay for insurance coverage in that the odds […]
Companies that profess expertise in the ability to find instances of copyright infringement on the web are plentiful. You’ve all seen their ads and pitches. While rarely mentioning it or hiding it in the small print, they do charge for their services. But their real profit center is in a creator’s willingness to let such companies pursue […]
Our friend, Steve Brazill, posted a great instructional video on the new procedures and his workflow for registering a group of published or unpublished photos at the Copyright Office. He’s posted it on his blog and video channel called “Behind the Shot”, which is a great video blog and worth subscribing to follow. This video […]
“Moral Rights” is concept that artists have an ethical right to control their creations, and protect the integrity of their work and their own reputation. So-called “moral rights” in intellectual property exist in various countries outside of the USA particularly in the EU. There is however, a portion of the US Federal Copyright Law, which […]
With the dramatic increase in substantial copyright litigation recoveries, the costs of intellectual property litigation and upon the often insistence of insurance companies that have to pay for infringements, more and more law firms are engaged in the practice of “Risk Management”. In lay terms this means that litigators are brought in to “teach” ad […]
Copyright Troll – Part 2
Oct 30
Just in time for Halloween comes a droll “troll” decision by Judge Denise Cote out of the United States District Court for The Southern District of New York. The Southern District is the federal court that covers Manhattan, The Bronx, Westchester and Rockland Counties. Several months ago we wrote about a decision made by Judge […]
Behind Podcast The Shot
Oct 29
Check out our latest podcast with Steve Brazill’s Behind The Shot Podcast. Great new info. Lotta laughs. https://behindtheshot.tv/2018/10/25/copyright-for-photographers-2018-update/
One of the areas we get asked about the most concerns model releases. As a reminder to readers, model release laws are not national, but rather are specific to each state are usually referred to as “right of publicity”, “right of privacy” or mash up of both. Whatever they are called they cover the unauthorized […]
