Jerry Seinfield showed us that a TV show about nothing could be worth something, like more than 3 Billion (with a capital B) dollars. That’s the syndication revenue from 1995 to 2014 as referenced here. We now see a lawsuit, Carol M. Highsmith v. Getty Images (and others including Picscout which Getty owns) seeking one […]
Archive for category In The News
Readers of our columns and attendees at our seminars well know that A) theft of copyrighted images is rampant and B) you can do something about it. The effects of thousands of successful claims and lawsuits brought by photographers and illustrators against record companies, newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs etc., is having the deterrent value we predicted. […]
A reader asked us about our thoughts regarding a “small claims court” for copyright actions. Alan Zarenelli, asked this question in our blog’s comments. “Howdy – The PPA is pushing hard to have copyright cases heard in small claims court (http://www.ppa.com/ppa-today-blog/copyright/why-do-we-need-copyright-small.php). What do you think of this approach?” We think the reply is worth an […]
A reader of this blog, Gary Schubert posed a really good question in our comments section. It is one that we feel is a bit too complex for a short answer there, hence this piece. He asked why celebrity photographer Tyler Shields can get away with the often alleged copying of the work of others. […]
Our past articles on the myths of arbitration resonates with us in the infamous NFL Deflategate case. We’ve always said that in most cases, photographers and artists would be better off in court, rather than go to arbitration. So here we go again. (You can read our previous articles here, here, and lastly, here) A […]
Last week we lost not only a Prince, but also a King of intellectual property rights for artists. Many talk the talk, but few have walked the walk and fought the fight, as did Prince Rogers Nelson. Prince was renowned by many for his business acumen almost as much as for his musical talent. He […]
Hip Hop Hop – Part 4 of 3
Apr 15
We are adding a 4th part to our 3-part article, as we received an e-mail doubting the authenticity of the practices of #2 in part 3. We were discussing how companies use social media, while hiding the fact that it’s them posting stuff. We wrote: “Companies make their own posts under a variety of methods […]
The Hip Hop Hop – Part 2
Apr 11
The music industry likes to claim how valuable their copyrights are one day and then claim that your copyrights are worth next to nothing the next. They try Hip Hop one day and then Hop Hip the next. It’s the ole Hip Hop Hop. In this column we’ll discuss that great proverb, “turnaround is fair […]
The Hip Hop Hop – Part 1
Apr 6
The story about how the record industry treats infringers and the lessons that photographers can learn from their efforts is so big, so good, we’re devoting 3 articles to it. The recording industry is under many of the same pressures as the photo biz. Movie studios actually make the same efforts but it’s harder to […]
