Free at Last.....Free at last

Canadian Copyright Revision

Today, after many years of lobbying by the Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC) (www.ppoc.ca) and the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators (CAPIC) (www.capic.org) have worked together to repeal section 13 (2) of the Canadian Copyright Act.

Photographers outside (and some inside) Canada will be shocked to hear that in Canada the copyright for assignment photography goes to the hiring agency by default. Yep, unlike the rest of the civilized world, unless you have a contract that specifically states you retain the copyright, it's automatically given to whoever hired you. Yes, all photographic rights are lost unless you get it in writing to keep them. (I know there are some Canadian shooters staring at the screen in shock, but I'm not kidding).

Today, Bill C-61 was entered into the House of Commons to append the Canadian Copyright act. You can read a summary of the bill here:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/rp01163e.html

Of course, people are also upset because this will also interfere with copying music, movies, and other electronic entertainments, but I have no problem with it. There are also mummers that this may be like the DMCA laws in the US. Hogwash, most people complaining about this have no understanding of US or Canadian copyright laws. Basically you don't get to use someone else's work for whatever you want, which means Canada will finally be in compliance with a treaty it signed in 1996.

Personally, I also have no problem with these laws. If you try to remove copyright information, you violate the law. If you post copyrighted material to a website, I want to be able to send a takedown notice to the ISP and have it removed. No lawyers, no hassle, I email the notice to them, identifying myself as the copyright holder and it's done.

Yes, this means you will no longer be able to trade copies of the transformer movie with your friends - go buy or rent a copy. It also means you can't steal my work. Copyright was designed specially to protect the individual artist of limited resources from larger organizations who want to steal it and use it.

All of the changes in this bill are good things. It reinforces that when someone creates something, they both own and control it. For the individual, this also means someone can't steal you photographs off facebook or myspace and use them at will. Too many people think these changes are for the benefit of corporations, but this actually benefits individual artists.

As a professional photographer, my copyright is my greatest asset. I'm ecstatic to hear that finally my copyright will remain with me by default as well as other protection. It means that a client cannot use my work in other mediums, like a website or video podcast, without my permission.

The Writer's strike in the US was about EXACTLY this issue. They wanted to be paid when a studio decided to release a movie on DVD, podcast, or itunes. A lot of people endured a lot of financial hardship in that strike for just this issue. Do you think the writer's were doing this to protect a corporation - no, they were protecting themselves.

I'm standing and applauding this bill. It's about time.

Contact Festival - That's a Wrap

Contact.....We have Contact......

May is an interesting month in Toronto, Spring is (usually) in full gear and summer just around the corner. As well, the Contact Photography Festival happens - for the whole month. It makes May worth the wait.

The Contact Photography Festival happens every May in Toronto and is now in its 12th year (13th, if you consider this year done), with over a million visitors to its events. This is the largest photography event in the world, according to their website, so there is something for everyone.

The festival is a swarm of little events spread throughout the city and surrounding area. This year had 500 artists in more than 200 venues. The guidebook is nearly 100 pages with very little wasted space. By being widely spread and over the entire month, the festival has the benefit of being noticed and local to almost everyone. It's easy to see how they can claim a million visitors.

More information here:

CONTACT Photography Festival

80 Spadina Ave, Suite 310

Toronto, Ontario M5V 2J4

T 416-539-9595

F 416-539-0829

info@contactphoto.com

www.contactphoto.com

It's hard to see everything, but I make an effort every year to visit some of it and next year I intend to be more involved.

Besides some of the gallery events and displays, I also managed to attend the wrap party last week (Thursday) at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. I've never been to the wrap party for Contact before, so I expected this to be quite the do. Nancy-Marie was unable to attend, but I brought along one of my partners in crime, Steve Shien. Nancy-Marie had phoned to make sure we were on the guest list and warned us to show up on time to make sure we could get in.

I'm not sure what happened, but there was no real difficulty in getting in, nor was there any name checking or VIP section that I could tell. Of course, we may have simply been idiots an unable to notice something happening in another room or upstairs, but the curator for the event was visible in our area for most of the evening, so I think we were in the heart of it.

After some speeches and award presentations, the party pretty much blended into the usual Thursday night bar scene for the area. We decided to head down the block for a little boost from Starbucks, when we noticed a display outside the hotel.

On the long window facing the street, there were three screens of 4'x6' each, playing video photo essays from Magnum in Motion, with full sound. Fortified with caffeine, we returned and spent the next hour or so watching the videos on the sidewalk. Personally, I found the videos much more interesting than the party people antics inside.

Even more fascinating was watching people on the street deal with the photographic displays. Magnum is a world class photo agency (if not the definitive photo agency) and their photographers have covered a wide variety of areas and events, some of which are difficult to watch, but all are important and moving.

It was surreal to see people walk past large photographs of natural disasters or war zones without noticing. Some people looked and walked on, some stopped to watch, but many simply failed to notice what was less than 4' from them and larger than life. They didn't ignore it, I mean it simply failed to register with them. completely. Like it wasn't even there. They were focused on talking to their friends, watching who was watching them, or trying to get into the bar, but not on the photographs of dramatic human events next to them. I estimate at least 3/4 of the people going by did not allow this photographic drama to even enter their world.

I confess to be a little shocked, but not so surprised, at self absorbed behavior of my fellows. We have become, in many ways, a callous society. It was a unique experience to see people able to mentally edit photographs that had to occupy close to a quarter of their field of view. In fact, I was so moved by these events, I went out and bought a Canon G9 on the weekend, so I could capture this type of thing in the future.

Magnum in Motion: inmotion.magnumphotos.com
Magnum: www.magnumphotos.com