Archives for News & Current Events category
Today Flickr announced a limited partnership with Getty to create a Flickr Stock Collection. In short you need to be discovered by Getty photo editors and additional details are forthcoming.
The great folks at Getty Images and Flickr are joining forces to create a collection of royalty free, rights ready and rights managed photographs. This announcement is just the first step and there’s a lot to do before we launch. We’ve created a FAQ to address what we think will be the initial questions.
The FAQ is quite barebones at the moment. You make the call if this is a good thing or bad thing for Flickr photographers. For now I withhold judgment as to how this can be interpreted for the state of affairs at Getty.
More on PDN
Technorati Tags: Flickr, Stock Photography, Getty
This past week the news has been full of stories about high gasoline prices, expanding domestic drilling and various politicians perspectives on the issue. Now that most every American is feeling the squeeze due to higher gasoline prices pro-oil politicians are trying their best to convince the average American that domestic drilling is the answer to their problem. Sadly nothing could be farther to the truth.
Jay McDonough of the San Francisco Examiner wrote a short but very effective article this week ANWR Bottom Line: Two Cents A Gallon. As the title would lead you to believe opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling would help lower the price per gallon of gas approximately 2 cents a gallon in 2025. The net benefit in the near future… ZERO as it would take years if not a decade to begin seeing an impact from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As this analysis makes abundantly clear the tactic to open up domestic oil drilling is nothing but an exploitive sham. What would make a huge immediate impact to the price of oil? The answer may surprise you.
Would you believe Enron is still impacting your energy bill? That is correct. We’re feeling the effects of the “Enron Loophole” as discussed on Marketplace with Michael Greenberger. What would would make a significant and immediate impact would be putting back in place regulation of the oil futures market that had been functioning effectively for over 70 years. Enron in 2000 lobbied for the deregulation of the oil futures market enabling speculative investors to drive the price of oil to record prices. If after reading or listening to this interview with Michael Greenberger you’re outraged then make sure to contact your U.S. Congressperson or Senator and let them know how you feel about the “Enron Loophole” and rolling back domestic drilling bans.
Click to view more Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) photos
Technorati Tags: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, photography, photo, stock photo, oil, drilling
One of the most exciting developments to occur this weekend was the landing of the Phoenix Mars Lander. Landing on the northern pole region of Mars, amazing photos were sent back detailing unusual, yet familiar looking polygonal shapes in the polar landscape. Upon seeing these photos I didn’t need to read a word on the NASA Phoenix Lander web site about what I was seeing. From my trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge I knew exactly what these polygonal formations represented… permafrost or permafrost like conditions.
Below on the left is one of the first photos transmitted from the Phoenix Mars Lander and on the right is an aerial view of the Arctic Coastal Plain. The lifeless/waterless surface of the Mars polar region looks very similar in form to our very own northern polar region. This discovery once again showing another facet of how the mathematical and physical laws of nature repeat from micro to macro and from planet to planet.
The presence of permafrost formations on Mars and Earth is but one of many fascinating instances of forms repeating throughout nature from the microscopic to the interstellar. A commonly repeated forms observed is the logarithmic spiral as seen below in Hurricane Isabel and M51 (photo by Brian Lula). This particular form is far more common than the polygonal permafrost formations, but all part of the mathematical uniformity stemming from the molecular structure of all things that compose matter in our universe.
Logarithmic Spirals Isabel and M51 - APOD
Spiral by minipixel
The recent photos from Mars are not only a distant view to another planet, but a view to the common inner working of how our Universe is built. Nature truly is an amazing thing to study as well as take in visually.
Technorati Tags: Mars, NASA, Phoenix Mars Lander, permafrost, polygon, formation, landscape, photography, nature, shape
In mid-April there was an excellent panel discussion “Copyright in a Hyper Digital Age” put on by ASMP discussing the changing landscape of Copyright law as it impacts photographers. A variety of discussions took place, but the most timely and interesting was about the Orphans Work legislation that is again being discussed in the US Congress and US Senate. No other legislation is likely to have as big of an impact on photographers in recent years as the Orphans Work legislation. Mr. Vic Perlman, ASMP General Council, gives an informative description and update in this video that was recorded a week before Orphans Work legislation was reintroduced in Washington D.C.
This video is 24 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it in full. I guarantee you’ll find it of value if you’re serious about providing full protection to your photographic work. After this discussion there were additional comments provided by each panel member. I will be posting individual videos of each panelists comments tomorrow. Stay Tuned. ASMP should be releasing a podcast and/or videos which covered this portion of the event.
Update: This video covers only the first two speakers. Additional videos of the other speakers will be added shortly.
Update #2: The remaining videos are now available after the jump.
Vic Perlmann, General Counsel ASMP and Mike Linksvayer, Vice President Creative Commons
For other Orphans Works legislation discussions check the following sights:
For the techies out there this video was taken with a Nokia N95. I’ve been amazed at how well the video on this phone works. The resolution on videos taken with this phone are incredibly good. Too good for online hosting services. Stay tuned for more I got a lot out of my limited time with the Nokia N95 and have more videos from the phone coming. Read more… »
On April 17th ASMP is hosting a panel discussion titled “Copyright in a Hyper Digital Age: Copyrights? Copyleft? What rights are left?” This event should be noteworthy for several reason but most notably because of the meetings tone (see below).
This won’t be your father’s Copyright event.
This isn’t a “How to fill out the Federal Forms”, or “Let’s complain about Evil Clients” event.
This will be frank interchange between cutting edge legal minds, prominent creative industry players, and persuasive advocates.
This will be vivid insight and uncensored opinion with audience participation about artists’ rights in the digital age.
Panelists will include:
Mike Linksvayer - Vice President Creative Commons
Vic Perlman - General Counsel ASMP
M.J. Bogatin - Board President of California Lawyers for the Arts
Henry W. Jones, III (Hank) - Former General Counsel and VP of intellectual property of several Silicon Valley tech companies and consultant on Open Source and Intellectual Property rights
Gerald Bybee - Long time professional photographer. Consultant and expert witness on legal cases involving copyright in photography
Panel moderated by Jeff Pfluege
Location: Academy of Art Auditorium & Gallery. 79 New Montgomery, San Francisco
Date and Time: Thursday, April 17th, 7pm
Social hour begins at 6pm
Admission information can be found on the following event page.
Copyright in a Hyper Digital Age
See you there!
Technorati Tags: Copyright, Digital Age, ASMP, event
For those into nature, wildlife and conservation photography you may already know about the Environmental Photography Invitational (EPI) photo contest. I’ve had a few friends inquire about the status of this contest as the historical submission deadline has past. Last week I got a hint of what was to come, but kept the update to those that asked. Today I can provide a broader update to those who read this blog that an update was posted today on EP Invitational web site announcing a change to the contest. EPI is now the International Conservation Photography Awards (ICP Awards).
One of the notable changes is that winning and select photographs will no longer be displayed at the Art Wolfe gallery, but will instead be displayed at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington. In addition featured photographs will also be publishedin a prestigious photography magazine to be announced..
Details can be found at the ICP Awards web site. Get your photos ready entries are being accepted now through May 25th.
Technorati Tags: EPI, Environmental Photography Invitational, ICP Awards, International Conservation Photography Awards, photo, contest, photography, Art Wolfe
Last week I discussed the Adobe Photoshop Express terms of use (ToU) and how the wording was nothing short of a rights grab (see Adobe Photoshop Express & The Mindless Photo Rights Grab). By weeks end John Nack posted an update, regarding the ToU, that “the Photoshop Express team has made some changes”.
Reading the paraphrased revisions on John’s blog post alleviated what concerns I had, but when I read the revised ToU I was left scratching my head wondering what the hell I just read.
First John’s post linked to the General ToU which I think has edits, but they’re not marked so I can’t be sure what they are. Text as seen at the top of the General ToU:
Last Updated on April 3, 2008.
Changes are not marked in red. Please read entire document. Please also note that these revised Terms will apply to all of Your Content as of the Effective Date.
If you do not agree with these revised Terms, please remove Your Content from the Service by the Effective Date.
What people need to certainly reread is the Adobe Photoshop Express Additional Terms of Use which has (2) two edits. On this page I get the edit about advertisements in Section 10, but I’m left confused by the most important edit to Section 8.
8. Use of Your Content.
- Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, and unless otherwise specifically agreed in any Additional Terms that might accompany individual services (such as Photoshop.com/Express), you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.
I’ve reread this at least ten times and each time and the edit in red makes about as much sense as when I read it the first time. Didn’t I just read this in the “Additional Terms of Use”? Why is the Additional ToU referring to the Additional ToU? Is this not circular loop? I still don’t see how this matches up to the paraphrased note from the Photoshop Express team as noted on John Nack’s blog.
- Adobe’s Rights - Adobe has retained only those limited rights that allow us to operate the service and to enable you to do all the things the service offers. If you decide to terminate your Photoshop Express account, Adobe’s rights also will be terminated. We don’t claim ownership of your content and won’t sell your images.
- Shared Content – We clearly state the rights you’re granting other users when you choose to publicly share Your Content.
Although the edit in red still confuses the hell out of me one element of my confusion was addressed, but only after some detective work. What isn’t in the edited license is (6) striked out words that were in the previous version of the ToU “derive revenue or other remuneration from”. Previously in the context of…
…you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content…
With these words out of the ToU I can see how the claims in John Nack’s post “We don’t claim ownership of your content and won’t sell your images.” are valid.
Perhaps this all makes sense to a lawyer, but the edit to the ToU was hardly an easy thing to figure out and to be honest I’m still not 100% on what the edit now means. At least the “distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from” text has been removed.
Once again this goes to show…
1. Terms of Use are hardly readable to the common user.
2. The photo community rallying for their rights can instigate change.
Now if only Adobe could make these edits a little more clear so they’re as easy to understand as the paraphrased text in John Nack’s blog post.
Technorati Tags: Adobe, Photoshop Express, rights, copyright, software, technology, web, terms of use, rights grab, edit, revise, John Nack
Monday BALCO laboratory founder Victor Conte stepped into the spotlight once again with news of his tell-all book “BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports.” What many consider to be the most shocking new development revealed with in its pages is the use of performance enhancing drugs by local and professional photographers in addition to the already publicized community of professional athletes. I would like to assure my fans that the allegations made on page 134 of the leaked version of this book that I was a customer and recipient of performance enhancing drug injections are flatly false and untrue.
“Ironically law enforcement and even the U.S. Congress is happy to pursue investigations into professional sports, but turns a blind eye to the seedy underworld of performance enhancing drug use by semi-professional and professional photographers. Local San Francisco Bay area photographers such as Jim M. Goldstein who were striving to reach peak performance to keep pace in the highly competitive online photography forum community and stock photography market regularly received injections. The sudden creative explosion of his work, increased viewer attention and numerous awards received during 2002-2004 seemed all but normal, but I can assure you without BALCO photographs such as “Delicate Arch, Arches National Park”, “Golden Gate Bridge Evening View” and “Radiant Poppy” would have never been so eye catching and well composed.”
Page 134 of “BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports.” by Victor Conte
These recent claims of my use of BALCO’s non-detectable performance enhancing steroids influencing the creative capture of my award winning photographs “Delicate Arch, Arches National Park” (2004), “Golden Gate Bridge Evening View” (2002) and “Radiant Poppy” (2004) are absolutely false and have been a shock to friends, family and myself. During 2002-2004 I was indeed a client of a local natural medicine and acupuncture specialist who regularly provided flax seed oil rubbing balm as part of my normal treatments. During this time I did not inject myself with steroids of any sort and merely made visits for acupuncture treatments.
At the urging of my legal council this is the extent of what I can discuss about these recent allegations. I’d like to thank my fans, clients and most of all my family for their continued support.
For inquiries on how to donate to my legal fund email me via forwon@jmg-galleries.com
UPDATE: Now that April 1st has past… for the gullible this was an April Fools Day joke.
Technorati Tags: photography, BALCO, Victor Conte, steroids, drugs, flax seed oil, allegations, Jim M. Goldstein, BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports
