8 posts tagged “art”
Those of you who know me know that I'm not just an artist; I'm also a huge tech geek. And so it's with great interest (and concern) that I've been watching the most recent internet kerfuffle at the convergence of my two areas of interest. You may not be aware of the latest viral video that is the darling of the same tech community it parodies, "Look, It's Another Bubble" by The Richter Scales. At the heart of this controversy is a photographer, Lane Hartwell, who found out that yet another one of her photographs was used without her permission in this beloved video. Like many of you might have been in her place, she was pissed that her copyrighted work was used both without permission or attribution.
Yes, it was a good video. I personally passed it around to a lot of like-minded friends before this whole thing blew up. And I can understand that people who enjoyed this video are mad at the photographer for not just giving her blessing after the fact and spoiling everyone's fun. But now this woman is being called, among other things, "a whiny bitch" for protecting her copyright and being a spoil sport, and some claim she's impeding on The Richter Scales rights to use the piece in question because the end result is a parody. People have made fun of the quality of her work, and the quality of her character, saying she's money grubbing and wants a piece of the viral pie, or is taking advantage of all of the publicity she's receiving for having this video taken down all over the net while she works things out with the other party. It's personally disheartening to see an artist villified by a community of which I am normally proud to be a part.
So let me put this to you: if this was your photograph being used in this video, how would you react? Would you be thrilled to have your work (sans attribution) appear in a video gone viral? Or would you, like Lane, be pissed that your rights were being infringed upon and try to do something about it? Was the usage of Lane's photograph fair use, much as parts and pieces are used in a collage, for example?
For further context:
From the photographer in question: http://flickr.com/photos/fetching/2090802706/
From the infringing party: http://www.richterscales.com/blog/
A representative post from the tech community: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/15/misunderstanding-copyright-law-and-ruining-everyones-fun/
We greatly welcome you thoughts on this issue. And if copyright issues are important to you, please pass this on!
Maybe you're new to EBSQ. Maybe you've been here a while. Either way, we'd love for you to be part of our 7th anniversary celebration. We're offering permanent (lifetime) memberships for $325 instead of the usual $650 price. Just think--no more membership fees, unlimited image hosting, access to all of the EBSQ services you already know and love (we hope!), and uninterrupted access to our community. Your faith in EBSQ's future will allow us to build a lot of the things on your wish list and help us as a community get that much closer to reaching our full potential. This special discount will be available starting October 5 and will run through 11:59pm eastern on October 8. Thank you for believing in EBSQ and helping us further our mission to support living artists! (read more about this special anniversary offer at EBSQ) |
If you have roughly 100 minutes to spare and really want to be inspired, I cannot recommend highly enough this recent talk at CMU by Randy Pausch. I was literally blown away. His achievement in connecting art and technology is simply outstanding. Thanks for the inspiration!

Birthday Girl by Christina Friedrichsen
Join us for tonight's rocking HOWTO presentation by Imagekind's own Aleks Davidovich on Imaging Best Practices for Art & Photography Print Production
Tonight Monday, March 12, at 9pm Eastern (6pm Pacific)
EBSQ Chat Room
As always, this event is FREE, ONLINE, and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
And while you're there, be sure to wish our very own chat hostess with the mostess, Melissa Morton, a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
spotted on flickr's homepage:
"I hate flowers. I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move"--Georgia O'Keefe.
I just did a phone interview with the Irish Times for an upcoming article on art and the internet. How bloody cool is that?
Tonight's presentation:
Adventures in Bead Embroidery
hosted by EBSQ Self-Representing Artists and Diana Lynn Grygo
Monday, December 11, at 9pm Eastern (6pm Pacific)
EBSQ Chat Room

"Auguste's New Clothes" by Diana Lynn Grygo
Bead embroidery is the art of stitching beads onto fabric with needle and thread. to learn By showing the process that creates a piece of wearable art using bead embroidery, Diana Lynn Grygo will illustrate some of the history, as well as the basics of this technique
Diana Lynn Grygo is a self-taught bead artist. She uses different techniques to create her work, but many of her pieces are bead-embroidered. Her work has been featured in Bead And Button magazine and she has a weblog The Lone Beader, where she documents the progress of her current bead projects as well as her other artistic pursuits.
LIVE! is open to members and non-members and we encourage all who are interested to attend, not to mention FREE! The evening starts at promptly at 9 PM EST so be sure to arrive a few minutes early.