Archive for category Paperwork

Have You Heard The One About The Vase and The Photographer?

A photographer accidentally knocks over and breaks a client’s vase in their home. The homeowner screams, “That’s’ a 600 year old vase!” The photographer replies, “Thanks goodness for that! I thought it was a new one.” While most people think of photography as a “glamour” business, most of the aspects of running a photography business […]

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Supreme Court Ruling on Two Copyright Issues

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)  just issued two decisions, both by 9 -0 votes directly affecting the rights and legal remedies available to copyright owners who choose to protect their work either defensively or by bringing an action for money damages for infringement. As we have written, lectured, screamed and cajoled for decades, […]

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PG to X to XXX Rated Photography

Using our powers of mentalism we know exactly what you are thinking at this moment – “What does this topic have to do with me? I don’t shoot or appear in that kind of stuff”. Now, now don’t get ahead of your skis grasshopper. The laws regarding risqué, controversial, or even sexual or simply implied […]

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Big Mistakes Into Small Opportunities

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 […]

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Remember Mom Droning On About Losing An Eye? A Drone Insurance Case

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 […]

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What They Know and How They Know It

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 […]

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Behind Podcast The Shot

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/

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Avoiding Grief, Aggravation and Litigation

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 […]

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Images On The Internet Now “Fair Use”? – It Ain’t Necessarily So

Journalists who have covered wars are well aware of the cliche’ “First reports are always wrong”.  Porgy and Bess put it this way, “It ain’t necessarily so.” Those two old sayings recently came to mind when we read the court decision that was recently headlined and clickbaited in various ways as “Photos on the Internet are […]

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Latest B&H Presentation Is On YouTube

Well, we were at it again, and here’s the video proof. If you missed our last B&H session and you if you want to know the new changes in registering your copyright at the Copyright Office, check us out at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QC_cuq0b6w We cover a lot as usual, such as the new eCO registration screens for […]

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