Proposed law in England threatens photo copyrights

[r_a_feldman]

Take a look at the story at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03..._orphan_works/.

" 'The Bill contains no deterrent to the creation of orphans, no penalties for anonymising your work, no requirement for bylines. It is a luncheon voucher for industry hungry for free and cheap content,' writes professional photographer Tony Sleep. He told us the bill legalises the machinery for creating bogus orphans works."

[bvstaples]

Curious, does this only apply to images made in the UK by UK photographers. I would imagine that UK publishing and broadcast (like the BBC) wouldn't want to tangle with US Copyright laws, if they were to be found infringing on a US photographer's image.

Not that this isn't a global issue, just that US photographers have a large arsenal and army to fight with.

Brian

[dave_whatever]

Always amuses me how the UK gets translated for a largely north american audience as "england".

This is one of the most idiotically implemented laws i've seen. We've not even had the election yet and already laws like this have got "screw the little guy" written all over them. Very Tory-esque.

[dave_whatever]

Curious, does this only apply to images made in the UK by UK photographers. I would imagine that UK publishing and broadcast (like the BBC) wouldn't want to tangle with US Copyright laws, if they were to be found infringing on a US photographer's image.

Not that this isn't a global issue, just that US photographers have a large arsenal and army to fight with.

Brian

I think the nub here is that if an image becomes "orphaned" then they won't know who or where the photographer is from, so basically anything that comes up readily in google image search and deemed "orphaned" will probably be fair game.

[Allen in Montreal]

If you get anything like what we have here you will get a quick reminder that:

The 10 or 12 men that own and run the publishing industry in this country donate to political parties.

Lowly photographers don't !!

[mdd99]

I agree that the orphaned angle is key, especially, as the article notes:

"One problem photographers see is that most computer software strips the metadata from digital images, creating an instant "orphan" work."

"Orphans being mass manufactured. The author becomes invisible; so copies on web just belong to nobody."

Google and BBC vs. photographers. Who do _you_ think will win? Moreover, I see such legislation creeping across borders, including the U.S. border.

[Gordon Moat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ght_agreements

The biggest problem is that the individual photographer rarely has the financial resources to challenge infringement in a legal system in another country. One aspect of many of these Orphan Works laws is that the liability limits for infringement are restricted, which benefits the infringing party. Once again bad behavior is encouraged.

[Sean Galbraith]

I think Canada has had an orphaned works law for a while now, and I haven't heard of there being any problems with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_works#Canada