{"id":369,"date":"2005-06-08T05:11:20","date_gmt":"2005-06-08T05:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/369"},"modified":"2005-06-08T05:11:20","modified_gmt":"2005-06-08T05:11:20","slug":"just-as-long-as-youre-not-good-enough-to-compete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/369","title":{"rendered":"Just as long as you’re not good enough to compete…"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Union-Tribune reports<\/a> that Wal-Mart and other digital-photo printer services are refusing to print pictures that, in their opinion, look “too good” and thus might be copyrighted by a professional photographer. This is likely in response to guidelines<\/a> drawn up by the Photo Marketing Association International<\/a><\/i>, which among other things instruct “If there is not a clear lawful basis to make the copy, the safer course is to decline to copy.”<\/i> While not legally binding, following the guidelines are a good hedge against being nailed for copyright infringement by the PMAI, as Kmart Corp. learned when it was sued in 1999.<\/p>\n

I suspect these guidelines came out of a genuine desire to “protect our members’ legal rights,” but I can’t help but notice how well suited they are for stifling legitimate competition. If you’re a crappy photographer then no problem, go ahead and use the online photo-processing site. But if you’re good at using Photoshop and your high-end consumer digital camera then you’re going to get harassed. Next time leave it to a professional, or better yet become one yourself and join the PMAI. I’m sure flashing a membership card would be more than enough to convince the clerk at Wal-Mart that you’re legit.<\/p>\n

(Link via Copyfight<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Update:<\/b> I should point out it’s not just Wal-Mart that’s being hard-nosed here. On various blogs people are talking about trouble with a variety of other services, including Kinkos<\/a> and Kodak’s Ofoto<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Union-Tribune reports<\/a> that Wal-Mart and other digital-photo printer services are refusing to print pictures that, in their opinion, look “too good” and thus might be copyrighted by a professional photographer. This is likely in response to guidelines<\/a> drawn up by the Photo Marketing Association International<\/a><\/i>, which among other things instruct “If there is not a clear lawful basis to make the copy, the safer course is to decline to copy.”<\/i> While not legally binding, following the guidelines are a good hedge against being nailed for copyright infringement by the PMAI, as Kmart Corp. learned when it was sued in 1999.<\/p>\n

I suspect these guidelines came out of a genuine desire to “protect our members’ legal rights,” but I can’t help but notice how well suited they are for stifling legitimate competition. If you’re a crappy photographer then no problem, go ahead and use the online photo-processing site. But if you’re good at using Photoshop and your high-end consumer digital camera then you’re going to get harassed. Next time leave it to a professional, or better yet become one yourself and join the PMAI. I’m sure flashing a membership card would be more than enough to convince the clerk at Wal-Mart that you’re legit.<\/p>\n

(Link via Copyfight<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Update:<\/b> I should point out it’s not just Wal-Mart that’s being hard-nosed here. On various blogs people are talking about trouble with a variety of other services, including Kinkos<\/a> and Kodak’s Ofoto<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}