Well, Grumpy is growing tired of the copyright debate, but it DOES raise some interesting questions that have yet to be explored. Is there not an attorney amongst us who can lend a more credible opinion on the whole fiasco? Whenever dealing with laws, one must be VERY cautious, as a layperson generally cannot determine the full implications of a complex law, and it is, in fact, a crime to render a legal opinion unless you are licensed to practice law.
My personal opinion on the issues are very similar to those everyone else expressed, so I won't beat a dead horse here -- I don't think any of us approve of theft. However, a slimy lawyer representing some dirtbag client MIGHT be able to win a case, if one ever went to trial. I have seen enough intellectual property disputes in my line of work to know that 'right or wrong' almost NEVER has anything to do with the outcome of a case, and anyone who claims otherwise has simply never been to court. Geez, people get away with murder in this country and go scott free - what makes you think a petty thief is going to get in any trouble? This moron you are all ranting about is yanking your chain, and doing a damned fine job of it, judging from all the mail in my box today. The copyright discussion DOES raise some very interesting questions. As Bill Nye would say, consider the following. Many of you have seen pictures in books or magazines which are credited like this: "Joe Schmoe photo, Bob Slob collection". This is VERY common in our hobby. What I want to know is, given that Joe took the photo, don't the usage rights belong to him? That being the case, how the hell can a publisher use Joe's image which was sent in by Bob, without Joe's consent or knowledge? This DOES happen all the time, and I think, sets a dangerous precedent that this sort of thing is OK. After all, this dumbass thief who has been stealing images off the internet could argue he is just following commonly accepted practices and has therefore done nothing wrong (NOT that I agree with that, or even suspect it matters). It would be quite difficult to prove there have been any monetary damages which resulted from some loser stealing images off one web site and posting them on another, especially if neither site charges money for access to said images. Even more interesting, what if said loser posts a link to your photo, instead of actually copying the photo to his site? Well, as it turns out, Ticketmaster would like you to believe this too, constitutes theft (you HAVE been paying attention to the Ticketmaster vs. Microsoft dispute, haven't you?) I think it might be easier to argue that a picture in a book caused damage to the photographer, in that he/she was NOT compensated for a work that cleary added value to the publication which was sold for profit. Still, since standard payment in this 'industry' is only about $10 per shot, it's damned hard to make a case that just because someone stole one of your train pictures, they owe you thousands of dollars. And before one of you damned irritating 'professionals' starts whining the old 'serves you right' BS, I'm just stating the facts here. >>I<< don't set the prices in this HOBBY, but I'm not dumb enough to believe that anyone will ever make $500 a shot from the likes of RailNews, CTC Board, etc. I can also guarantee you that no lawyer on the face of this earth is going to be interested in this nickel and dime stuff. A couple of grand would be the minimum most would require before they would be willing to pursue a case. Of course, if YOU want to shell out several grand from your own pocket, to win a potential $10 settlement, that's a different story. Frankly, I wish I would win the lottery so I could quit my job, go to law school, become a lawyer, and spend my entire life filing frivolous suits against people, just for my own personal amusement, but that's another story... So, what say you about all these evil publishers who have been stealing photographs for years? Might as well give them a kick in the ass as long as we're beating up morons, right? As I've said before, God loves the ignorant, that's why he made so many of them. :( Grumpy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Grumpy's World - http://www.eesoft.com/rr -> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs
