In a previous article about the pain of professional photographers I suggested that professionals would be forced to give away the copyright of photos they take due to competitive pressure. In the past the negatives were held by the photographer, or more correctly the photographer held copyright and didn't assign it to the client. This meant they controlled reprints. Over the weekend I made a discovery; that professional photographers have indeed begun to give people copyright ownership.
It is a sad day. After paying money for a professional account on Flickr they have now locked me out of my own account. The only way they will let me back into my account is to join up with Yahoo. Yahoo of course are scum. I would rather give my personal details to jack the ripper than Yahoo. The terms of service of Yahoo basically claim license to do whatever the hell they like with my intellectual property. Anything touches Yahoo servers and they have license to use, distribute,copy, modify and publish in any medium they want anywhere in the world.
Digital Photography is having very real impacts on professional photography. As previously discussed the barrier between professional and amature are closing. Like professional blacksmiths before the advant of the car, photographers are being hit hard by technological change. In this article on The Register we hear from one professional photographer that laments how copyright is not being observed on the Internet, and how copyright abuse is playing into the hands of bis business.
Yesterday I saw a video of a student in the US being repeatedly electrocuted by the Police. He had not been arrested, and while he was not exactly cooperative had not been violent or threatening. At most he was verbally abusive and failed to do what he was being told by the officers. The Police decided that they would motivate him by repeatedly electrocuting him with stun guns. These are the same stun guns currently being trialed in New Zealand . This course of events is not really of particular note except for the fact that the whole event was captured on video.
Over the last month or so I have extended my interest in digital imaging technology beyond photography and into Video. Originally it was to solve a problem I had with old VHS tapes; the problem was that all the footage of my son was on several VHS tapes, and that VHS players were becoming less common. The other issue was that there are several hours of footage which is tedious to watch; even if you are the parent of the subject. Digital Video provides some interesting advantages. I have published a film on my paintball experience in 1997 , and a recent visit to Kelly Tarltons .
Photography 
