ASMP, Editorial Photographers, National Press Photographers Association and other photographer friendly organizations are mounting a spirited campaign against proposed amendments to the current Copyright laws in the US.

“The U.S. Copyright Office issued its report on Orphan Works only a couple of weeks ago. The end of that report contained proposed language for an amendment to the Copyright Act. That proposal is now being fast-tracked in Washington with a good chance of passage before the end of this Session. In my opinion, if that language is enacted in its current form, it will be the worst thing that has happened to independent photographers and other independent visual artists since Work Made for Hire contracts.”

Orphan Works are those copyrighted material (images for instance) whose owners may not be easily located. According to this report, if the owner of the copyright isn't located within a reasonable amount of time and effort, the previously copyrighted objects is “released” to whoever has possession of the said object(s) for their use without fair compensation to the creator of the artwork.

What, is that right? Yep, that's what the amendment is proposing. And it is being fast-tracked through Congress RIGHT NOW.

The ASMP site puts this more succinctly by saying this:

“Orphan works are basically works whose copyright owners cannot be located. The term ”Orphan Works“ is really a dangerously misleading phrase. It makes it sound as if it includes only a few works that are not valued enough by their creators to warrant taking care of them. That may be true for owners of many kinds of copyrights. However, the reality is that for independent photographers and illustrators, the majority of your published photographs may well become Orphan Works. The reason for that is that, unlike just about every other category of copyrighted works, photographs and illustrations are typically published without any copyright notice or credit to the photographer or illustrator. The one exception to that has traditionally been editorial uses, but even there the trend seems to be away from providing credit lines. As more and more photographs are published on the Internet, credits become even rarer. Worse, even if you registered your photographs at the Copyright Office, there is no mechanism for identifying you or your photograph or for locating you through those records, if the user does not know your name.”

Here is what you can do – 1) write to your representatives (the ASMP site has a boiler plate letter that you can massage with your own words), 2) when you create a work of art (whatever it may be) submit a copy of it to the U.S. Copyright office, 3) if you are working with publications insist that your name appear in the credit line (make this part of your contract with them, 4) be vigilant about your images and where and how they are used (I had one Indian magazine use one of my images without my knowledge and then confessed to doing so after I pointed it out to them), 5) if you find transgressors, don't sit around waiting for them to come to you, send them a letter with an invoice attached and 6) barring all of the above hire an attorney who will work with you.

If you won't fight for your rights, no one else will either. Step up folks!

…. If I Shoot There Will Be Trouble, If I Don't It Will Be Double.

If you are a photographer – novice, amateur, professional staffer or freelancer, photographing on the subways can a dicey affair.

Alicia Wagner Calzada, president of the National Press Photographers Association, shares this video clip showing an altercation between a staff photographer and a New York City policeman who clearly does not know whether photographing in the subway system is permissible or not.

According to Calzada, “It illustrates a struggle that we are having with the right to take pictures in public places. As a bit of background, the NPPA (joined by several other groups) fought hard to block a proposal to ban photography on public transit in NY. It was defeated. But it appears they decided to enforce it anyway.”

If you are stopped by transit authorities or the police for photographing in the subway or train systems in and around New York City know that the law is on your side but it hasn't yet trickled down to those who enforce it.

If you are a photojournalist, are you to surrender to their directives to stop photographing? Or, are you prepared to challenge the officers and possibly get arrested ? As the photographer in the clip correctly states, most people will cease and desist rather than get arrested because no one wants to traverse the court system.

Ever wonder what the cost is for not telling the story? What kind of trouble will we be if all we are blanketed with is a sterile form of journalism – cleansed and approved by the authorities?

With profound apologies to The Clash for the title of this post.

Newspapers in the US aren't doing well. It's a beleaguered business awash in red ink and low morale. That's a broad statement and I am sure there are exceptions to this. But if you look at what is going on – shrinking budgets, loss of readers, layoffs, closures and sales – one realizes that the era of newspapers as the only source of news has come to an end.

Television sucked off a great number of people, who with little time on their hands depend on the 11 p.m. newscast to give them the “news” in small morsels and sound bites. The Internet has further supplanted the readership from newspapers because what can be delivered online is, in my opinion, even better than television. It's not just about speed. You certainly have a myriad of options on your computer that your television simply does not offer. Need I say it, newspapers simply cannot compete in this arena anymore.

So, the new king of info is really the Internet. Yet, it too needs to be massaged into something that the audience will return to use and appreciate. And, eventually something that advertisers can depend on for their revenue streams to start flowing again. Take a look at CNN.com or MSNBC.com; you will find succinct articles that are often myopic in nature. The articles on those sites may satisfy a certain class of online readers but it leaves those of us wanting more (yeah, there is always the New Yorker or the NY Times Sunday magazine, right?) with really nothing substantial to munch on. I think this is gross misuse of technology. No, I don't want to be bombarded with long, droning pieces either. The rush to scoop the other channel has quite often had these cable giants correcting their mistakes after the fact. It can be sloppy journalism; maybe fair, but inaccurate as well. Make these errors often enough and your online readership is going to start looking elsewhere for their news.

To their credit, MSNBC.com has showcased some of the best use of multimedia (in its true sense) than any other website. They have the capacity to do so, but also the directive of the management that sees this kind of work as informative and inspirational. The two newspapers that have successfully harnessed the Internet are The New York Times and The Washington Post. Again, there may be more out there, but that's where I head for my news and multimedia presentations on the web.

But more needs to be done. Enter Craig Newmark, of Craigslist.org fame. He may be the man to turn things on its head. As investigative journalists are let go at newspapers, Mr. Newmark intends to hire them for his yet to be named online news project. This should be interesting to watch. Will this turn into yet another “citizen-journalism” project? How will Mr. Newmark account for credibility and accuracy? There are lots of questions, but it is great to see that alternatives are starting to crop up.

Another “newsie” project is by Mike Davidson called Newsvine. I received an invitation to test it out and I will report back here about my experiences. Newsvine, writes Davidson, “is a large-scale news media site which gives you almost all the same stories you read on sites like MSNBC and CNN but presents them in a much more attractive package. Attractive not just in looks but in function as well. At Newsvine, we feel strongly that an article’s life only begins the second it is published. It is only when readers interact with it that it achieves its full impact.”

What are Craig and Mike up to? I think they are giving us, the consumers of news, a bit of a break. A break from getting news pushed to us. By allowing us to go fetch our own news, we are in some sense, in control of what we receive. There may be stories that we may wholly miss. But we do that with regular newspapers anyway as we gloss over headlines. Advertisers should be happy too, as they can target their market a whole lot more accurately now. The old-school, shot-gun approach to attracting the reader's attention (interruptive marketing in Seth Godin's language) will begin to fade as RSS updates from these news sites will be accompanied by text or graphic advertisements that the reader will more likely click on.

I am excited for Craig Newmark and Mike Davidson. I think they have both (Newmark's project is still speculative right now I agree) hit upon a phenomena that will reap them great rewards. And we are the better for it.

If you want to read more about how the tectonic media plates are moving, keep an eye on MediaShift, by Mark Glaser. And, oh, don't forget to subscribe to its RSS feed.

Technorati Tags: alternatives, budgets, CNN.com, industry, Internet, journalism, media, MediaShift, MSNBC.com, New York Times Sunday Magazine, New Yorker, Newsvine, television, The New York Times, The Washington Post

“If you are brown, them authorities will frown.”

That's my synthesis of what goes on in America if you are a non-white photographer taking pictures on the street. I am not the only one who has been bullied for merely walking on the street with a couple of camera bodies. Harikrishna has had at least a couple of incidents. And apparently so has the documentary film maker Rakesh Sharma who is taking New York city to court over his [legal] run-in with the law. If you are as pissed off as I am, please sign the petition.

Yes, I have been slow to arrive at my machine for the last couple of days. But here is wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year!