[Leica] Adobe rights grab?????

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

I got a frustrating and amusing lesson about all this recently.  Some of 
you may remember this Fourth of July fireworks picture:
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/LakeBurst.htm

Many folks, both on LUG and off, told me that this was an outstanding 
photo. I was encouraged by several people, including a professional book 
editor, to talk to the bank that sponsors this event and try to get them 
to use it for their publicity.  So I did.

If you can believe this, nobody I could find in the phone book connected 
with the bank knew anything about the event, despite the fact that their 
name is plastered all over it. Nobody knew if they had a P.R. department, 
or, if they did, how to reach it.  Nobody would give me a phone number of 
anyone who might know.

I finally found the P.R. firm myself by a Google search. When I called, I 
was told that I needed to talk to "Alice," who was in charge of this. 
When I leave her a message, be sure to use certain words, so she would 
actually call me back.  So I did.

Eventually "Alice" called.  "Gee, we really don't have a budget for 
photography, and I have a photographer who takes all our shots of the 
event. But if you'd be interested in donating it, I could take a look."

So I said, OK, I *might* be persuaded to donate, if and only if my name 
was featured prominently on any poster or flyer on which it was used.  So 
take a look and let's talk, here's the Web link.

She looked, emailed me a day or two later. Praised the photo to the skies. 
But she really doesn't have anywhere she can use it. But she encouraged me 
to post it on their flickr page, so I could share it with others(!)

I looked at their flickr page--it had nearly 500 mostly point-and-shoot 
shots of picnicing crowds and out-of-focus blurry shots of the fireworks. 
So I said, no thank you, posting on flickr is essentially releasing one's 
photo to the public domain. The response: "Thanks for reaching out, good 
luck."

(my day job's starting not to look so bad. . . ?)

--Peter


>And I think that the whole non-profit aspect of the bill is a giant 
canard.
>
>Non-profit organizations are an industry employing millions.
>Jim Shulman

Tina wrote:
> Absolutely!!  When non-profit agencies call and ask me to donate my
> photos, I always ask the person on the phone if they are getting paid
> for working there.  I will support causes I believe in, but I do it
> just like everybody else.  I give money.  Your work will have exactly
> the value that you ask for it.