I was invited into a Photoshop seminar by Adobe.
I can't remember how it went exactly but it went something like this... The speaker asked how many in the room think they should be paid for their work (photos and digital art). Nearly everyone in the room raised their hand. Then the speaker asked how many think they should pay for Photoshop? Well, you get the picture. He further stated if you want to get paid for your work you should also pay for the tools you use.
OT: For those who still think they shouldn't pay for Photoshop should take a look at GIMP...
It's not exactly Photoshop but it's pretty d@mn close... and it's FREE!!!
Well, people in the music industry feel the same way... and they're keeping an eye out on photographers... especially those that shoot weddings for profit and use music in video slideshows.
Some might say it's for personal use of the couple... but the photographer who made the slideshow is being paid for a service.
Others use the "if no one is stopping me then I guess it's ok" method.
Anyway, here's an article from Photo District News... it's a long read though but here are the excerpts...
Wedding Photographers Face the (Copyrighted) Music
by David Walker
A wedding photographer's run-in with a rock band for unauthorized use of a popular song on a client's wedding video has cast a spotlight on a practice that makes photographers squirm: their violation of other artists' copyrights.
ABC news reported that a video from the wedding of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and TV journalist/beauty queen Candice Crawford suddenly disappeared from YouTube after going viral. According to ABC, the video featured Coldplay's song "Fix You" as theme music. The photographer--Joe Simon of Austin, Texas--reportedly settled for an undisclosed amount to avoid a lawsuit for unauthorized use of the music.
But Simon is by no means the only photographer to synchronize copyrighted music to a wedding video or slide show without permission. With no easy or affordable way to clear rights with copyright owners, and only a small risk of getting caught (unless the video goes viral), a lot of wedding photographers are breaking copyright law.
"Photographers are using main stream music more and more and it's a pretty polarizing conversation," says wedding photographer David Jay. "Some photographers really feel passionately about it and think of it as 'stealing' while some artists want to pay but can't and others see it as one artist helping another artist promote what they do."
"It's an issue [wedding photographers] have been concerned about. It came up in a workshop we taught in 2007, and the conversation is accelerating," says photographer Andrew Niesen. He says many photographers want to be in good standing with other copyright holders.
"A lot of photographers are using music out of license due to ignorance. They don't know how to pursue a license," says Rachel LaCour Niesen, who is Andrew Niesen's wife and business partner.
Jay says wedding photographers simply find music licensing too difficult.
...
..."I want music that a couple connects to for a slide show," says another successful wedding photographer who admits she uses music illegally--and doesn't want her name used because of that. She praises Triple Scoop--"great selection, a ton of variety," she says. And she uses it to license music for any slide shows she displays in public.
But for slide shows she makes for her clients, an unfamiliar song from a service like Triple Scoop, she says, "isn't the same as using the music they played at their wedding," she explains. "I want to use a soundtrack that will transport them back to their wedding. I can't trigger that memory with generic music, no matter how good it is."
"It's ironic," she continues. "We [photographers] are so 'don't steal my images,' but we'll steal your music. That's the worst part of it."
To assuage her sense of guilt, she doesn't charge clients for slide shows. She provides them to clients as "a gift," separate from the wedding package items that she charges clients a fee for.
...
..."I personally don't think it's illegal to use the music and until a judge or jury makes a ruling that it is in this specific type of case I'll probably continue to be OK with photographers doing it."
Wolff emphasizes that there is "no exemption for personal use" that makes it legal for wedding photographers to use copyrighted music without permission. "If you're doing a slide show, you should get a license."
But she also says that if a slide show is shared only among family and friends, the rights holder is unlikely to ever find out.
Videos and slideshows posted on YouTube (by the photographer or the client) pose more of a risk for the photographer because music rights holders are able to scour YouTube with music recognition software for illegal uses, Wolff says. "If they see it, they tell you to take it down. But they're probably not going to sue you."
She speaks from some experience. Wolff represents PACA, the trade associations for stock photo agencies. Someone posted on YouTube a video shot at a PACA event showing members dancing. The owners of the music playing in the background found the video online--and sent a takedown notice.
NOTE: For full article please go to
Wedding Photographers Face the (Copyrighted) Music
But what are your thoughts?...
raising a ruckus over stolen images while mixing down stolen music for slideshows
Re: raising a ruckus over stolen images while mixing down stolen music for slideshows
Originally Posted by P-Chan
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