The topic of the June, SouthLight Salon meeting was an overview look at the current state of copyright, as it applies to photographers – including fine art photographers, within the United States.
As commercial photographers – meaning those who derive the majority of their income from the commercial applications of the images they create – such as editorial, corporate, stock, or advertising, to name but a few, copyright is an issue that we are in need of being aware of. However, the fine art photographer may not be aware of the overwhelming importance of registering his, or her, images as well.
In this age of technology, the direct, and nearly-lossless, copying of an artist’s images is easy. In researching this topic, for my presentation to the Salon, I was bluntly reminded of the prevalence of copyright infringements.
We are now living in a time when an entire generation has grown up with the internet and, a large part of the internet culture, has been about acquiring anything, and nearly everything, displayed on the internet for free – whether stated as free or not.
There are numerous cases where people have acquired a photographer’s work, via his or her website – or even the website of a magazine or social media site, and republished it, claiming it as their own.
Over the coming weeks, I will be posting several entries around this subject and what we, as artists, should be doing – can be doing, to help stave off this growing epidemic.
- David Robert Farmerie
show hide 1 comment