One of our favorite speeches is by the late, great Winston Churchill, who said to a nation in its darkest days: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. “
Right on, Winney! We wish more photographers would feel the same passion and fire about their copyrights and have the same determination defending it. Too many times, photographers not only sign away their copyrights in onerous negotiations, but they do so without even a fight. What would Churchill say? Remember his words, “We shall never surrender”!
Now we know many of you shrug your shoulders and say, “Why fight? My photos aren’t anything special. They aren’t fancy schmancy photos. I just want to get paid and leave me alone”. Wrongo buckoo. The fact is many cases Ed sees, litigates, and recovers monies are for photographers aren’t the fancy, schmancy ones. They’re sometime very mundane, photos you look at and say, “Gee, anyone could have shot that!” and you’d be right.
There is a pending case that Ed can’t talk about, but I (Jack) can. You may have read about it now that is that it’s public record and has been covered by Reuters and other news services. It’s regarding the photos of photographer David Strick, images of celebrities taken on movie sets. The concepts at play involve anyone who shoots for newspapers, magazines or even just “regular clients”. Never give up your copyright.
The headline reads “L.A. Times Sued by David Strick Over Photo Copyright”
Read all about it here and understand that photographer David Strick retained his copyright with the Los Angles Times by having it in his contract. He never surrendered his assets, which are clearly valuable enough to have lots of lawyers fighting over them.
If you want to read even more, here’s a link to the filing itself. You can read all of the publicly accessible papers which have been filed by both sides with the Federal Court. Remember, don’t give up, don’t surrender, your rights under the Copyright Law.
Jack
