Stealing photos by AFP, Getty, and other media outlets court ruling - December 2010
It takes a lot of nerve to steal a photographer's photos, and then sue him because he is
being too aggressive in asserting his copyrights - yet that is what AFP (Agence France
Presse) did. Well, AFP's tactic didn't work. It also says something profound about those
that deliberately infringe on someone's copyright, yet claim to be protectors of these same
copyrights - including the world's largest licensor of photos, Getty. Normally, these type
cases can take years to resolve, and this one isn't over yet. However, the courts have
clearly cast a jaundiced eye towards the practice of photo copyright theft by major media
outlets. Hopefully, Daniel Morel will be able to see this case to its conclusion, and prevail
in protecting his stolen copyright photos of Haiti.

Original Daniel Morel Haitian case

Court ruling in favor of Daniel Morel
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The importance of "Tineye" in protecting intellectual property. - November 2010
Tineye is a reverse image search engine that at the time of this writing has a database
approaching 1.8 billion images. It has been very important in discovering copyright
infringement (like the Garcia-Fairey-AP case), and it is free. I highly recommend that
photographers, and anyone in advertising use this free search engine. It could be the
safest thing you could do to protect yourself from infringing upon someone else's
copyright, as well as protecting your intellectual property..

Tineye's website
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Famous Copyright infringement of Mannie Garcia's "Obama" photo - November 2010
It is a sad state when the deepness of your pockets determines whether you can
protect your rights. Mannie Garcia, shooting a celebrity for the Associated Press;
also took an iconic photo of then Senator Obama. Fast forward a couple years
and an "artist" named Fairey does a google image search, and makes a poster
of Obama that is clearly based on Garcia's photo. Fairey further implicates his
own sense of guilt by destroying, and falsifying evidence in the resulting three way
lawsuits. First to sue was Fairey when he got wind of the AP's upset with him
using "their copyright image" claiming his use was protected by "fair use". Then
the AP sued Fairey, and lastly, Garcia sued both Fairey, and the Associated Press.

Well, Garcia has given up on protecting his copyright. He let the bastards grind
him down with the cost, time, tactics and says to the LA Times... "the legal
proceedings have taken a toll on [Garcia] personally and professionally."
In another interview Garcia claims he is "exhausted".

NPR audio interviews with Fairey, Garcia, and a law professor - February 2009

The NYT - March 2009

Campfire Journalism - October 2009

Traverse Legal - March 2010

Mannie drops case against AP - August 2010

Wiki Link
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Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Faces Dozens of Lawsuits
Photographers, agencies, and artists that have contributed content to textbook
publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have filed more than 30 copyright infringement
claims in federal courts, and more claims are in the works. "The scheme that
HMH employed was to license for the lowest amount it thought it could get away
with, and then print whatever it wanted," says Seidman of the law firm Harmon
& Seidman LLC representing the photographers.

More info here
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Plagiarizing by "Artist" - November 2010
Mirjam Letsch has an interesting blog entry on plagiarizing of photographers' work for
other derivative works of art. I have got to admit that this seeming blatant copyright
infringement that has become quite common did cross my mind during this
years ArtPrize in Grand Rapids Michigan. When the basis of a work of art is done
by someone other than the "Artist" - then calling it their "art" is very very suspect to
say the least, and most likely is a copyright infringement.

Read what Mirjam has to say here.
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State of Texas in trouble for copyright infringement by DPS inmates - November 2010
Photographer David K. Langford wants a Texas court to stop the Department of
Public Safety from use or issuance of stickers based on his copyrighted photo,
"Days End 2". The basis of the design was clearly stolen by DPS inmates from
David's photo which has provided him some income over the last 25 years. 4.5
million stickers have already been printed.

Read more here
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FM Gallery Photos viewed over 600,000 times - October 2010
It was only in June that my Fred Miranda gallery had 500,000 photo views - so it
is with surprise that I noticed it had already passed the 600,000 mark a few days
ago.

FM Photo Gallery
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ArtPrize Entries are now at the Riverview Center - September 2010
See and read a bit about my second year in ArtPrize, and the theme of my entries this year.

Info about my ArtPrize Entry "Hunger"
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Amphibian Stock Photos - August 2010
The singing of tree frogs pierces the night air around my house. I captured one of the singing frogs
the other day and photographed her. She would mouth seeming words, but would refuse to open
her mouth whenever I held the camera. Weird. However, she was a curious little bugger - so I shot
her with her mouth tightly shut.

American tree frog, and amphibian slideshow
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Cool summer destinations - July 2010
July was hot and we sought relief from the heat in a couple cool spots. The Kalamazoo Air Zoo is a
wonderful destination for the family. Admission is free at both campuses, and the collection of air and
space craft is impressive. Though the rides do cost - the look of amazement on the kids faces made
it all worth the price. Check out a slide show of the Air Zoo

Kalamazoo Air Zoo slideshow

A bit of a drive from Grand Rapids is the national park known as Sleeping Bear Dunes. I remember
the dunes being higher years ago, but at 450 feet above the water they are still high. Kids love to run
down the dune, but complain loudly about the climb back to the top. The view from the top is amazing
- see the slide show here.

Sleeping Bear slideshow
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Photoshelter Gallery
Photoshelter is a pro photographer stock agency which also offers the service of online
storage of full resolution photos accessible from anywhere in the world.

May 2007 - My Photoshelter Galleries

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