DR has been called the “most famous photographer on the internet.
If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, you can see that the credit is to”DR”.
“When I ran DR in Google, it linked me to your website.” explained genuinely the picture editor.
DR are not the initials of a name, the name of a photographer. DR is the French acronym for “Droits Réservés”, Righs Reserved and mean so much as:”We do not know the origine of the picture and who the photographer is and do not want to search. If you see that this picture is yours, contact us. (Maybe you will get some money) “
The reason why the picture editor landed on the CEPIC website is that, three years ago, we were regularly reporting on the progress of an “orphan law” in France. The law was supposed to tackle the abuse of the denomination “DR” in French publication:
- According to a report of the French Senate, up to 90% of images published in the press do not mention the name of the author and just resort to the label “DR”.
The bill proposed that after a proven “diligent search”, image users unable to trace the author would pay a fee to a collecting society. A critical review of this original bill may be found here. (The critical comments are still valid!)
Ultimately, like in the US and in the UK, the process stalled and the l”orphan works” law timed out.
However, as the story opening this blog shows, the problem is still there and is getting worse as the use of Google Images intensifies!
In 2014, a new round of negotiations in France bringing together press publishers, photographers, picture agencies and collecting societies is most likely to address the issue again.
