Comments on: WAL-Mart Won’t Sell Granny Pics http://nmallory.exit-23.net/20061204/wal-mart-wont-sell-granny-pics & Other Discombobulated Thoughts Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:53:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3 By: b. http://nmallory.exit-23.net/20061204/wal-mart-wont-sell-granny-pics#comment-20216 b. Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:25:35 +0000 http://nmallory.exit-23.net/20061204/wal-mart-wont-sell-granny-pics#comment-20216 actually i went to walmart the other day to make a copy of a picture of my great grandmother who was 16. The picture was taken in 1916. that's almost a hundred years old! well, someone had given that copy to my grandmother and she didn't know where the original was. anyway, the dumb lady at walmart said i had to have the original to make the copy. Now tell me, where in the heck am i going to find the original when my own grandma don't know where it is?? actually i went to walmart the other day to make a copy of a picture of my great grandmother who was 16. The picture was taken in 1916. that’s almost a hundred years old! well, someone had given that copy to my grandmother and she didn’t know where the original was. anyway, the dumb lady at walmart said i had to have the original to make the copy. Now tell me, where in the heck am i going to find the original when my own grandma don’t know where it is??

]]> By: J http://nmallory.exit-23.net/20061204/wal-mart-wont-sell-granny-pics#comment-27802 J Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:13:20 +0000 http://nmallory.exit-23.net/20061204/wal-mart-wont-sell-granny-pics#comment-27802 This is not just walmart policy. This is also the copy right law. This lae is in place to protect the photographer. This law also protects walmart from leagal action. If you can't understand that you are the one who is an idiot. This is not just walmart policy. This is also the copy right law. This lae is in place to protect the photographer. This law also protects walmart from leagal action. If you can’t understand that you are the one who is an idiot.

]]> By: J http://nmallory.exit-23.net/20061204/wal-mart-wont-sell-granny-pics#comment-27803 J Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:25:52 +0000 http://nmallory.exit-23.net/20061204/wal-mart-wont-sell-granny-pics#comment-27803 Copyright applies to most artistic works, such as paintings, murals, statues, TV shows, music, and for us, photography. As a photographer, it gives you the exclusive right to make and sell copies of the photo; to create derivative works (other art based on the photo, such as a painting of the photo); to display the photo in public; and to license usage for money to other people. In a sense, copyright doesn't give you anything, it really just affects other people, saying what they can't do, thus it's known as a "negative right". Copyright Is Automatic? Yes, thanks to the Berne Convention. At the moment of creation, when the artwork is "fixed" in some tangible form, copyright applies automatically. For a photographer, when you press the shutter release you are making a photo and gaining copyright to that photo at the same time. You don't have to declare copyright or file any paperwork. It is yours to keep until you explicitly give it away or you die (copyright expires after you, the duration in the U.S. is the author's lifetime plus 70 years). That said, there is an advantage to filing for copyright. If a dispute arises, you can get punitive damages (in addition to compensatory damages) if a form was filed before infringement. Copyright applies to most artistic works, such as paintings, murals, statues, TV shows, music, and for us, photography. As a photographer, it gives you the exclusive right to make and sell copies of the photo; to create derivative works (other art based on the photo, such as a painting of the photo); to display the photo in public; and to license usage for money to other people. In a sense, copyright doesn’t give you anything, it really just affects other people, saying what they can’t do, thus it’s known as a “negative right”.

Copyright Is Automatic?
Yes, thanks to the Berne Convention. At the moment of creation, when the artwork is “fixed” in some tangible form, copyright applies automatically. For a photographer, when you press the shutter release you are making a photo and gaining copyright to that photo at the same time. You don’t have to declare copyright or file any paperwork. It is yours to keep until you explicitly give it away or you die (copyright expires after you, the duration in the U.S. is the author’s lifetime plus 70 years).

That said, there is an advantage to filing for copyright. If a dispute arises, you can get punitive damages (in addition to compensatory damages) if a form was filed before infringement.

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