Photographers to Lobby for Stronger Copyright Protection
Regarding the ongoing and increasing copyright battle between artists and artists (who primarily use the photographic medium), the NY Times‘ Patricia Cohen pens a lengthy article regarding the current state of this war. Quoting Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers, “Fair use started out as an exception to copyright law…Now it seems that copyright is the exception to fair use.”
But more interesting still is how more than half a dozen groups, including the National Press Photographers Association, Professional Photographers of America and the Picture Archive Council of America, are considering hiring a Washington lobbyist.
Well, if the activist courts can’t get it right we hope our legislators will. Let’s hope.
Jon Tobin:
February 27th, 2014 at 7:50 pm
I can’t think about the Prince case any more; it hurts. While I value fair use for its original purpose of protecting commentary, education and editorial, I think it has been transformed (pun intended) into this nebulous monster that many vocal proponents feel is needed to address other shortcomings in the current copyright laws.
In my law school copyright class, the professor disabused of that notion on the first day and told us that fair use should be used as a last ditch effort.
As a side issue, I also find it disturbing that musical artists can be sued for sampling tiny portions of an audiorecording, while visual artists seemingly have license to use as much of another work as they please as long as they call it “appropriation art”.
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March 7th, 2014 at 4:14 pm
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Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento:
March 7th, 2014 at 4:24 pm
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