By Sylvie Fodor This blog collects funny and less funny stories from the picture business. It is regularly up-dated. Send us your posts!
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Up-date 04.03.2022
His presidential campaign clip has now earned Éric Zemmour a new line on his judicial record: the candidate to the French elections in April has been sentenced on 04 March for “copyright infringement” and must pay a total of 70,000 euros to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs include the AFP, Gaumont and EuropaCorp, directors Luc Besson and François Ozon and the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) amongst many others.
30.11.2021
A candidate to the French presidential election has used unauthorized video clips and images in his video announcing his candidacy. Among others, the copyright of the AFP, France3, France24, Gaumont, the castle of Ussé, the film director Luc Besson, or the INA or private pictures. The right to the image of several personalities is infringed as well. In total 124 infringements were reported. Eric Zemmour’s campaign team considers that these uses fall under the exception of quotation which allows the use of short extracts of works within the framework of a critical, polemical, scientific, educational, or information use. However, none of the authors are quoted and this is the clip for a political campaign … Here is a selection of a few articles reporting on the infringement as well as the press release of the AFP protesting against the unauthorized use of its content.
Older stories (selection)
25.08.2021
Has Nirvana sexually exploited the baby in pool?
Apparently there was no model realease for this baby picture. on the cover album of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Thirty years later this could bel abelled as “sexual exploitation”.
- “The images exposed Spencer’s intimate body part and lasciviously displayed Spencer’s genitals from the time he was an infant to the present day,”
- The inclusion of a dollar bill makes the baby look like a “sex worker”
- The genitals should have been covered by a sticker
Will the judge agree?
In a short live Facebook post, the “New York Times” confuses the Cathedral of Cologne with Notre Dame de Paris. See the importance of a good picture editor and of good metadata 
Read the story here …
- Leading figure of the extrem right displayed on main page of Paris Match. This was a mistake: Read more here …
- Photos were posted on Pixabay on a creative common licence. They were copied by a photographer who posted them in a photo competition as her own. And she won … See what happens next …
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Copyright. Statue of Liberty on stamps
“The Statue of Liberty is at the heart of a lawsuit brought against the United States Postal Service (USPS) by artist Robert S. Davidson, who charges that the government mistakenly used a photograph of his Las Vegas sculpture of Lady Liberty for a stamp without permission.”
As the author article suggests, the case raises question about originality. From a more practical point of view, one may also wonder how this could happen and where in the licensing process which information/ photo metadata got lost
- It’s not just copyright. Moral rights have their importance too and the right to one’s image. The Front National leader, an MEP since 2004, tweeted three uncensored pictures of Isis killings in December 2015. Now members of the European parliament’s legal affairs committee voted on Tuesday by an overwhelming majority to waive Le Pen’s immunity, after a request from the prosecutor of Nanterre in west Paris.
Read more here
- February 2017. Already 16 complaints have been lodged at the “Deutscher Presserat”, the German Press Council, against the cover of DER SPIEGEL showing Donald TRUMP beheading the Statue of Liberty. Some see that the victims of terrotist attacks are ridiculed, others that human dignity is under attack. First decisions are expected in March. Read here to know more.
- January 2017. Thai hostess with glamourous life style but photoshoped pirated visual content attracts 150.000 followers on Instagram. Until she has to delete her account.
- US Presidential Elections. Is Donald Trump a pirate too? The “Bowl of Skittles” image used in an advertisement campaign against Syrian refugees is being sued for copyright infringement. Read the full story here
- Spoted on Google’s street view
Over-zealous Google protects #privacy of of a cow. More on BBC Click here
- Facebook categorizes Napalm iconic Vietnam war picture of photographer Nick Ut as pornography The Gardian reports Click Here
- #Brexit story 2. Right to One’s Image is still relevant. Team GB threatens to sue Brexit campaigners over Olympic video as Silver medal-winning cyclist objects to his image being used by pro-Leave group. Click here
- #Brexit story 1. Nissan sues Leave campaign for using their brand. Make sure you use the right photos when there is a logo! Click Here
- This story is not one of misuse of an image, rather if what happens when images are used too many times, in particular stock images for editorial usage …
Click Here to view the story
- A normal piracy story on the Internet. This blog story (for German readers only …) is interresting, not because it is unusual but precisely because it has become so usual … Click here
- Good faith is not enough as a defense. Two French companies produce without authorization T-shirts displaying the famous picture of Che Gevara by Korda. They say they downloaded the picture from a Canadian website providng “royalty free”, “libre de droit”, content. Too bad the photo is protected and being a good-faith user is not enough as a defense says the Court.Click here
- Stolen pictures for an ad campaign. “We did our best to find the photographer” is not an excuse as this is not that complicated to find photographers, especially when you know their names. Come on … To read about this case: here
- Facebook uses picture of dead girl for advertising of dating site. There are many issues related to Facebook’s new privacy policies. This case blatantly illustrates just one amongst them. Click here
- Personality rights do matter. Woman sues major picture agency after a picture of her appears in an anti-HIV advert. Click here.
- Sara Palin. Even politicians don’t seem to know how to handle pictures. Sara Palins is being sued for copyright infringement. Click here
- Elections in Germany. Very unfortunate: ahead of the upcoming Bundestag elections in Germany, both the liberal and right extremist parties FDP and NPD find themselves using for their campaign a video clip showing the same family, which on top of this was previously to be seen in an advertising for Finnish yoguhrt! Click here to see clip (in German)
- A stolen photo becomes a contest winner. Click here to know how.
- Murdered boy advertises for kindergarten. The jazz festival of Montreux aplogized for the use of the image of a small murderd boy, Gregory. He had been murdered in France in the 1980s. A 20-year old graphic designer downloaded the picture from Google Images. The picture of the 4-year old was used in the festival’s magazine, proudly advertising for their Kindergarten! Here is the link to the story (in German).
(Non exhaustive) list started in 2013
