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Jeff Ward Wants My Writing — Free (4)

Peter Marshall, the British writer/photographer who produced hundreds (thousands?) of articles on photography for About.com, has some thoughtful comments about my recent posts on intellectual-property issues (see #1, #2, and #3) up at his blog, >Re: PHOTO, in his November 9, 2009 post, “Writing for Free.” Though he’s not a full-time working writer, Marshall did […]

Jeff Ward Wants My Writing — Free (3)

The idea for the PCCA came out of a decade’s observation of and engagement with content aggregation and delivery via the web. Many of the instances and examples had proved negative, primary among them the massive Lexis-Nexis infringement (including work of mine) that led to the landmark Tasini vs. Times Supreme Court decision and the much smaller-scale looting of dozens of essays from dozens of writers by the Paul Kopeikin Gallery (also including work of mine). Many content aggregators did it wrong, from my standpoint, starting with their basic assumption that they could and should get their content free of charge. How, then, could one do it right? . . . […]

IP Infringement Alert #1

I don’t find it an honor to have someone heist my IP — and most of my colleagues feel the same. Generally speaking, we prefer to receive formal written requests for such usages, and to make our own decisions regarding where and when to put it online. That’s a basic professional courtesy in the publishing world, to which Mr. Rickard appears oblivious. Let me be blunt about this: Copyright violation and other infringement of IP rights is never — I repeat, never — “a win-win for . . . photographers and content authors and clearly for the photographic community as a whole.” It’s theft: rude, arrogant, selfish, and unjustifiable. It sets a bad precedent generally; moreover, in the case of a given individual, not pursuing such infringement can void protection of one’s copyright at a later date. […]

An Exchange on “Fair Use”

In spring 2007 Chris Clanton found my posted material tracking Paul Kopeikin’s 2001 violation of my copyright and the copyright of three dozen other authors, and contacted me to describe his own situation. I responded at some length . . . […]