One of my clients asked me to point out in this space that today the NY Times online version (at least) is running a feature story on images voluntarily submitted to it APPARENTLY without payment. See http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na Scroll down to “Pictures of the Decade”.

The NY Times pleads for additional pix and posts the following as submission terms:

By submitting to us, you are promising that the content is original, doesn’t plagiarize from anyone or infringe a copyright or trademark, doesn’t violate anybody’s rights and isn’t libelous or otherwise unlawful or misleading. You are agreeing that we can use your submission in all manner and media of The New York Times and that we shall have the right to authorize third parties to do so. And you agree to the rules of our Member Agreement, found online at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/agree.html.

For those of you who have any trouble understanding the terms they mean that – the contributor is permitting the Times and anyone who the Times wants to license the image to, unrestricted use of the image without compensation to you. The Times may make whatever fees it can get by licensing the image to any third party. Contributor gets nothing. So dear friends, if you are unable to see that this is only about putting money into the NYT till, there is nothing I can say to convince you otherwise.

Edward C. Greenberg