Early this week, the stock photography blog, StockPhotoTalk posted an announcement regarding famed celebrity photographer Micahel Grecco taking on Gawker Media in a copyright infringement lawsuit. This looks like one of those precedent setting cases that takes on the idea of fair use and hotlinking of images by many blogs and blogger networks. Mr. Grecco’s attorney, Ed Greenberg writes of the suit:
… alleges that Gawker Media makes a practice of harvesting images from third parties and utilizing them without attribution or payment. The suit claims that Gawker Media makes daily use of images created by third parties without having obtained licenses to use such images.
And speaking of Mr. Greenberg; as an attorney vocal in several stock photography forum arenas, including Editorial Photographers (EP), he has posted a very persuasive call to action. Reposted with his permission, a letter he originally posted on EP now appears on StockPhotographer.info warning of legislation that could have a drastic impact on people that create artwork that may contain trademarks beloging to other people. The issue at hand is apparently an over-reaching protection against possible dilution of a trademark. The call to action is very important, and reading Mr. Greenberg’s letter should be mandatory.
Imagine taking a photo of a 1970 VW Beetle for an editorial magazine, and then have Volkswagon come after you for diluting their trademark. Frankly, I’m all for reasonable trademark protections, and in fact, have trademarked my own company name. But by all indication, this current legislation gives way too much protectionism power to trademark holders, beyond all the reasonable protections provided by current law.
Seriously, if you’ve never written a letter to your Senators, this is the one time to put the pen to paper and urge you to wite and oppose this new legislation.
