news for sale
I think that there's something wrong with selling news items.
I recently saw a series of photos taken by Sebastian Scheiner, an Associated Press photographer, where a number of Israeli girls are signing shells which were about to be lobbed at the Lebonese. the images are all over the web now, as they ought to be but I am constantly upset by the marked double standard that goes on between online publishing and print publishing. If I wanted to I could go to where I saw them and copy/paste them into a photobucket account and there's be no harm no foul. However if I were to copy/paste them into The Christian Radical I run the rish of being sued for coppyright infringement.
I am aware that I will probably get sued eventually no matter how dilligent I am about observing copyright law and I'm cool with that, you can't get into journalism without pissing people off. I'm just saying that if I'm going to get sued for something I want it to be for something good.
Selling news stories and photography keeps a tight control on who has access to current and credible information. If the LA Times or the Georgia Straight wanted to print these pictures I'm ranting about, all they have to do is make a call, flex a company credit card and they print it in their next issue. The folks who suffer are the people who want to run credible and reliable news and oipinion journals for nothing or next to nothing.
Why is this cool with people? I really think more people should be bothered by the thought that they can not freely share news and photojournalism unless they are doing it online.
I also think that it's high time that we as people in an aegedly free society started to take back our right to share printed information freely and without restriction. After all, if the only people who can afford to tell the news are companies like Canwest Global or Newscorp or BBC then we're only going to know what they feel we ought to know and never any more than that.
I recently saw a series of photos taken by Sebastian Scheiner, an Associated Press photographer, where a number of Israeli girls are signing shells which were about to be lobbed at the Lebonese. the images are all over the web now, as they ought to be but I am constantly upset by the marked double standard that goes on between online publishing and print publishing. If I wanted to I could go to where I saw them and copy/paste them into a photobucket account and there's be no harm no foul. However if I were to copy/paste them into The Christian Radical I run the rish of being sued for coppyright infringement.
I am aware that I will probably get sued eventually no matter how dilligent I am about observing copyright law and I'm cool with that, you can't get into journalism without pissing people off. I'm just saying that if I'm going to get sued for something I want it to be for something good.
Selling news stories and photography keeps a tight control on who has access to current and credible information. If the LA Times or the Georgia Straight wanted to print these pictures I'm ranting about, all they have to do is make a call, flex a company credit card and they print it in their next issue. The folks who suffer are the people who want to run credible and reliable news and oipinion journals for nothing or next to nothing.
Why is this cool with people? I really think more people should be bothered by the thought that they can not freely share news and photojournalism unless they are doing it online.
I also think that it's high time that we as people in an aegedly free society started to take back our right to share printed information freely and without restriction. After all, if the only people who can afford to tell the news are companies like Canwest Global or Newscorp or BBC then we're only going to know what they feel we ought to know and never any more than that.
posted by Chris Rooney | 7:07 AM
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