Friday, August 12, 2005
Camera phones and the pressMonique Van Dusseldorp at Poynter yesterday mentioned that the UK Chartered Institute of Journalists had sent a letter to the Press Gazette condemning media organisations who solicited photographs from the general public.
The CIJ attracted the ire of Jeff Jarvis, who felt that the group was trying to fence off the market for big media:
The CIJ frets that this puts citizens in danger. Well, we’re all big boys and girls and we can make those decisions. It also complains about copyright and payment to citizen journalists. There, too, they can take care of themselves and chose to share or sell or not.When you actually look at the CIJ's letter though, you get a distinctly different impression:
I think the real problem here is that they can’t stand the idea the competition — maybe even competition who work for free because they believe in sharing what they know.
In each of these cases, the broadcasters seek the right, which could be highly lucrative, to license, syndicate or otherwise make the material available to other broadcast and publishing organisations, keeping all profits for themselves and without guaranteeing the contributor that they will see their name credited in print, or hear it broadcast.I suspect Jarvis in his rush to take pot shots at the "haughtily named" Chartered Institute of Journalists reads a malevolence that simply isn't there. The CIJ isn't saying people should be banned from doing this, but simply pointing out that they deserve payment for content rather than have to renounce copyright. In other words, just because you're an amateur, you shouldn't be obliged to work for free.
But for sheer effrontery, surely CNN takes the prize. It not only expects its viewers to send it material without payment, but it states on its website: "You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless CNN, its parent and affiliated companies… from all liabilities or losses, including, without limitation, reasonable attorney's fees."
[...]
We at the Chartered Institute of Journalists recommend that nonprofessionals should not send in material to these above-mentioned TV companies while they continue to exploit and denigrate news photography and their potential contributors, both professional and non-professional, in this way.
Elsewhere, the Press Gazette reports that a new agency for amateur phone photographers has already attracted 1,200 members in the space a week. The new agency, Scoopt, said it would "syndicate work to newspapers and magazines in exchange for a 50/50 cut". While Scoopt has yet to sell any photos, the Press Gazette does mention the taxi driver friend of Dolores McNamara, who received €16,000 for his photos of the Euromillions winner.
Categories: Media
posted by Dick O'Brien at 8:49 AM | link |
--------------------
