http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/ Business aspects of LF photography, including legal, marketing and promotion. en Fri, 24 May 2013 05:29:27 GMT vBulletin 15 http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/images/misc/rss.png http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/ http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103601-MADNESS-IN-FRANCE!-Express-Mail-parcel-held-for-almost-3-weeks-in-customs&goto=newpost Wed, 22 May 2013 20:40:01 GMT just had to put a shout-out to any of you potentially shipping into France(in my case, Nice) from the USA: be ready(potentially) for your parcel... just had to put a shout-out to any of you potentially shipping into France(in my case, Nice) from the USA:

be ready(potentially) for your parcel to be held hostage for a while! I sent a package(Manfrotto geared head I sold via ebay) to the buyer in France.... well here's a screenshot for you to see of the USPS update email I just received:

absolute madness!


this was sent EXPRESS Mail, since Priority to France has given me fits many times before.... Bullpuckey....
I requested a refund from USPS, but they said that since it was "out of our hands"... I thought I(and the buyer) were paying for EXPEDITED services...

stupid VAT, stupid customs.... Just x-ray the parcel and be on your way and deliver the darned package!

sorry, had to get this off my chest :cool:

-Dan ]]> Business Daniel Stone http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103601-MADNESS-IN-FRANCE!-Express-Mail-parcel-held-for-almost-3-weeks-in-customs http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103527-Large-format-and-Polaroid-pictures-expected-to-sell-at-auction-for&goto=newpost Mon, 20 May 2013 20:04:02 GMT Large format and Polaroid images expected to sell at auction for... ... Large format and Polaroid images expected to sell at auction for...

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/18/monk...00000_partner/

Enjoy :)

Cheers ]]> Business Capocheny http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103527-Large-format-and-Polaroid-pictures-expected-to-sell-at-auction-for http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103321-Need-advice-on-website-programs&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 13:42:20 GMT Hopefully you guys can help me out. While I would love to have someone design my site for me, the expense of doing that is just too great. I am... Hopefully you guys can help me out. While I would love to have someone design my site for me, the expense of doing that is just too great. I am currently using Visual Server for my website. They do an adequate job, their template software is easy to use. However, one of my complaints is that I don't have the ability to add much text to the images, their image size is limiting, and I think they are high with their pricing. I'm looking for a program that is simple to use as I am pretty much clueless with programing and software. So it has being simple to use is important. I want it to be clean. I need to be able to have galleries and within those galleries have the ability to have text with the image. I also need to be able to do things like list my art fairs for the year and maybe other info that I might find pertinent to my work. I am looking at Zenfolio. The pricing seems decent and from what I can see, it seems like it would work. Any help, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My current site is www.spiritlightphotography.com. Hopefully that will give you an idea of what I want. Thanks in advance. Jim Becia ]]> Business Jim Becia http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103321-Need-advice-on-website-programs http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103077-Ebay-and-protecting-people-infringing-copyright-my-story&goto=newpost Tue, 07 May 2013 18:37:46 GMT I know I'm fighting a losing battle trying to keep my work from being copied and sold but I'm fighting it anyway and taking some blood.

Here's my story, I troll the internet looking for copyright infringement of my images and find several a week. Most folks are good and don't understand copyright law and take them down. Others need a little pain to get their attention.

Examples of infringement, I found a student at the Chicago Art Institute copying and reproducing my x-ray art. She was also copying Disney and other trade marked art.

I find numerous uses of my documentary images of Popcorn Sutton being used on playing cards, T shirts, sweat shirts, greeting cards, Christmas ornaments and etc. I've found people in England, Norway, Italy and other locations around the world. Most of the sites like Zazzle will gladly take them down. These images have become iconic and have become high demand items since the death of Popcorn.

I've even found a couple of professional musicians using them in music videos. One I almost had to take to court over the use.

Two weeks ago I ran across a seller who sells thousands of images on Ebay. In the Popcorn Sutton listings was two of my images of which one contained my picture. (another story). I emailed the seller and told him to remove them or else and he did. I also have a policy of charging a royalty fee if I catch them using them commercially and if they know the law. this person did know the law and even put his own water mark on MY IMAGES. He said he put the water mark on them to keep people from steeling them. DuuuuH, what do you think you did. Anyway the seller refuses to pay up and I decided I'm going to bust him. In his sale he brags about the number of satisfied customers and how many images he sells. Time to pay up folks! I spent three years on this project and thousands of dollars and don't like people taking my work and selling it.

I decided it's time to inflict some pain on this company / guy. I do have a phone number to the company but need a name. I thought the easiest way would be to get it from ebay. NO SUCH LUCK!!! After a week + truing to get it and filling out form after form and waiting for responses and even providing two copyright registration numbers they tell me I have to subpoena ebay for the information. They no longer give that information out. No problem, a subpoena is no big deal but I need a persons name and physical address of where to deliver the papers. HAAHHH!!! it's not that easy. Ebay hides behind their phone system. No one will give me a name or an address where a person would be to deliver the papers. No name, no address no subpoena. All the phone systems are automated and there's no way to get in even dialing 0. the customer support people will not provide or can not provide a number for the legal department.

Next step, I ordered a print from the seller to get a physical address from the return label. since I have the phone number I'm going to run a reverse phone directory and get the name or the owner.

This time I'm not only going to inflict pain I'm going to bring blood. I have an intellectual property attorney working for me. From talking to her it's my understanding if we send a demand letter and it's not fulfilled we then file a federal suit. The seller will have to travel to the court in Tennessee from Ohio. I have the registration certificates with the copyright office and print outs of his auctions. Basically an open and shut case and he has to pay all court and legal fees plus damages. I've filed to other suits and won so no big deal.

It's time for all of us to stop these guys. Just taking it down from the internet isn't enough if they're making money from them. Don't be afraid of busting them. The catch is if you haven't registered the images with the copyright office you can not collect damages but can only stop their use. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ticked at the person using my images as avitars but I am ticked at those selling them.

I know it can never be totally stopped but we do have the power to bring blood. Register your images!

PS- The photo they were selling that I am in, I don't believe this one has ever been published except on my book back cover and it was cropped. The only other place this image has been in the public eye is in the touring exhibition that is going to museums. I suspect this person took a camera to one of the museums and directly shot a picture off my images.
__________________ ]]> Business Don Dudenbostel http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103077-Ebay-and-protecting-people-infringing-copyright-my-story http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103051-When-is-the-copyright-date&goto=newpost Mon, 06 May 2013 20:28:46 GMT According to the copyright.gov web page the date should be when the work is first "fixed", not necessarily when the work is first offered. For a novel this would be when the author finishes the work, not when it's published.

For a photo, is the copyright date the year in which the negative is made, or the year in which the print is made (presuming them to be different)? If the latter, if I print the same image low-key this year and high-key next year, do I need two copyrights?

Not that I expect it'll ever matter for my own work... ]]> Business Steve Goldstein http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?103051-When-is-the-copyright-date http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102952-4k-8k-Ultra-HDTV-for-photographers&goto=newpost Fri, 03 May 2013 20:49:16 GMT As someone in Silicon Valley close to the underground goings on of high tech, the couple years I've kept an eye on developments in 4k and 8k Ultra HD TV. Until last year there was little available publicly in part because consumers and broadcasters were making the change from NTSC to 1080p HDTV with TV manufacturers not wanting to discourage current sales of that golden goose. But now with 1080p mostly built out, the cat is out of the bag publicly so now some consumers are suddenly wondering why they spent mega bucks on huge 1080p sets if much better sets were soon to be available? That was followed by sober cautions that though some very expensive Ultra HD sets may soon be available, that media and content to play on them, much less broadcasted television won't be realistically available anytime soon. So for now enthusiasts are supposed to be mainly among rich home theatre users.

Before the economic meltdown I mothballed my emerging photograpic print sales business except for my website then went back to work in hi tech that has always been an easier way to make a decent living for this person. Within that process stopped accumulating large format Lightjet color prints in the sub 40 inch size that up front also required expensive drum scanning and expensive matting much less framing.

So a thought occurred to me that such larger monitor displays might be a better way for photographers to display their photography to an audience than numbers of framed and or matted prints. Not an issue for photographers with small prints but very much the situation for large format color print persons. And even 8k dimensions are well within the pixel range of higher end DSLRs so this is no longer a realm for just we LF enthusiasts. One reason the business I began a decade ago went to sleep was I realised the logistics of moving around dozens of large physical prints for any public displays or exhibitions was rather futile for a peon.

The last few months have seen several announcement of multi 4 figure buck Ultra HD sets either in development or production. And last month the first more basic model has appeared. At the same time LCD manufacturers have been able to manufacture displays such as the current Ipad's and Android tables that suddenly have pixel densities as great as the highest end printers are capable of printing at. If that doesn't turn a light bulb on in some of your noggins then it should. Obviously those marketing Ultra HD have not yet connected with the idea that those products might have special value to photographers. My own vision is that for those of us with rather extensive numbers of high quality marketable images, it will be much easier to effectively display them to either the public or commercial clients by hauling around a single monitor and pc versus a van full of heavy framed prints. The video driver and pc control interface in fact ought to be simpler than products targeted for video media so would expect lower price end products.

$1500 Ultra HD TV
http://news.consumerreports.org/elec...reat-deal.html

David Senesac ]]> Business David_Senesac http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102952-4k-8k-Ultra-HDTV-for-photographers http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102870-Kodak-Shows-First-Quarterly-Profit-Since-2010&goto=newpost Wed, 01 May 2013 15:30:58 GMT An article in the Rochester newspaper discusses Kodak's latest SEC financials and says they show the first quarterly profit since 2010. I don't have any particular point in mentioning this, just thought some might be interested in reading it.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...arterly-profit ]]> Business Brian Ellis http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102870-Kodak-Shows-First-Quarterly-Profit-Since-2010 http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102798-B-amp-H-Customer-Product-Reviews&goto=newpost Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:19:19 GMT Just wondering if I am the only one not seeing customer product reviews on the B&H website. I rely heavily on them and would hate for them to take down. Any one else not seeing customer product reviews on the B&H website? ]]> Business Jeff Dexheimer http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102798-B-amp-H-Customer-Product-Reviews http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102794-UK-Gov-passes-Instagram-Act-All-your-pics-belong-to-everyone-now&goto=newpost Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:33:36 GMT From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04..._act_landgrab/

"But the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act has sailed through without most amateurs or semi-professionals even realising the consequences.

The Act contains changes to UK copyright law which permit the commercial exploitation of images where information identifying the owner is missing, so-called "orphan works", by placing the work into what's known as "extended collective licensing" schemes. Since most digital images on the internet today are orphans - the metadata is missing or has been stripped by a large organisation - millions of photographs and illustrations are swept into such schemes.

For the first time anywhere in the world, the Act will permit the widespread commercial exploitation of unidentified work - the user only needs to perform a "diligent search". But since this is likely to come up with a blank, they can proceed with impunity. The Act states that a user of a work can act as if they are the owner of the work (which should be you) if they're given permission to do so by the Secretary of State and are acting as a regulated body." ]]> Business r_a_feldman http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102794-UK-Gov-passes-Instagram-Act-All-your-pics-belong-to-everyone-now http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102639-Something-NEW-from-ebay&goto=newpost Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:43:33 GMT I don't know if this is new to ebay, or just something new to me, but when I posted a few items last week, this wasn't there and now it is. Now at the top when you try to post a new item, or re-list, the following window appears and blocks further progress.



You're almost done with your listing. There's just one more thing to do. It looks like you don't have a reimbursement payment method on file with us. Sellers must have a reimbursement payment method on file under our Buyer Protection Policy.


In order to complete your listing, please add your reimbursement payment method now . Once you're done, you'll be able to review and submit your listing.


Note: You can always change your selected reimbursement payment method in My eBay or cancel your reimbursement payment method by contacting us. Learn more about what eBay Buyer Protection means to sellers.

The only difference in my own circumstances is that I did have a package that was slow to arrive about a week ago and the buyer posted a dispute (without communicating with me) which was immediately removed when the package did arrive. This was my first ever dispute. Otherwise, my record for years has been 100% positive and I was notified by ebay that this dispute was resolved in my favor.

Seems like ebay is once again stacking the deck, only now totally in favor of the buyer. As for me if this stays as their policy, I am completely done selling with them. With this new policy, all a buyer has to do is allege anything and get a full refund out of my account without having to prove a damn thing or seemingly without having to first return the item, possibly leaving the seller without his or her hard earned funds as well as possibly never getting the item back. I am completely fed up with their complete emasculation of any seller protection.

If I am reading this new window wrong, please enlighten me, otherwise, it's Good bye ebay!!!!!! ]]> Business lenser http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?102639-Something-NEW-from-ebay