Key words in this issue:| copyrighted Photography | defendants | Licensing Fees | Multiple Screens | Stealing | Photo Thievery | Back to the Basics Specialized Interest Areas | Raw or JPEG | George Lepp | Theme | Focused Marketing | Copyright Infringement | Damage | Court of Appeals | Digital Notes | Image Ready | Save for WEB | Marilyn |

News Words: |Marilyn Photos | Photography Class | Travel Photography | Stockbyte | Outstanding Work | View of Plains | Airport Security Bag | Online Photo | Digital Work | Open Raw | Photography Kiosks | Turkish International | Atacama Desert

	PhotoAimLite, the monthly newsletter from PhotoSource International. http://www.photosource.com ISSN 1530-0511 If you no longer wish to receive PhotoAimLite, see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.

The Court Can Go Beyond Normal Fees…
License Fees as Element of Statutory Damages

The owner of a copyrighted photograph is, under certain conditions, eligible for statutory damages and attorneys’ fees in an action for copyright infringement. The plaintiff in such an action may elect statutory damages or actual damages at any time prior to entry of a judgment.
In a recent case, Van Der Zee v. Greenidge, brought in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Court explained its rationale for awarding enhanced statutory damages.
The plaintiff held exclusive copyrights in the photographs of her late husband, James Van Der Zee. The defendants were a book publisher and its principal who reproduced two photographs in a catalog as part of an advertisement for a book of Van Der Zee's photographs.
The defendants had approached the plaintiff about permission to reproduce the photographs in the book and negotiations pursued. However, no agreement was ever reached and the plaintiff never deposited a check she received from the defendants nor gave permission to reproduce the photographs.
During the negotiations, Van Der Zee discovered that the defendants had already reproduced the two photographs in the catalog. Litigation ensued when settlement negotiations were unsuccessful.
THE FACTORS INVOLVED
Defendants eventually defaulted and the Court was asked to enter judgment for statutory damages. The Court, in its analysis, stated that several factors go into determining statutory damages, including expenses saved and profits reaped by the infringers, revenues lost by plaintiffs, the value of the copyright, and the deterrent effect on others besides the defendants. Additional factors include whether such actions were wilful or innocent.
The Court found that there was no evidence of what profits were derived by the defendants since they defaulted, but that at a minimum defendants avoided payment of $1,500 per photo, or a total of $3,000 in licensing fees, which had been set by plaintiff. The Court concluded that doubling this $3,000 amount to $6,000 and awarding that amount in damages was appropriate for the plaintiff's loss. The Court further stated that such amount bore a reasonable relation to actual damages suffered.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/legal132.html

Stealing on the Internet
Should you worry about photo thievery on the Internet?

There’s an element of human nature involved here: Trust.

Back when we first got here to the farm, the nearest grocery store was (still is) the Horse Creek Store. Fred Nelson would stand behind the counter and retrieve the products you wanted from the shelves. It’s not that he didn’t trust his customers. He was giving them service. It had always been done that way. A few years later when supermarkets were introduced, I asked Fred if he thought customers would walk out of supermarkets with products in their pockets without paying.
Fred’s response, “Well, there might be some of that.”
As we all know now, yes, a few people, it turns out, will do that. Maybe 2% - maybe 5% - of the population. Nevertheless, at the Horse Creek Store you now gather your own items from the shelves. And the supermarket service model, used everywhere from huge groceries to hardware stores, has benefited both customers and owners. Customers retrieve the products themselves, and thereby a greater volume of customers can be taken care of per day. Businesses have learned to factor the minor loss through thievery into the cost of the products, and volume sales.
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Back to the Basics
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This model assumes an element of trust on the part of the store owner. The owner's position is that, “I trust you (most of you) enough that you won’t walk out of my store without paying.” The owner absorbs the cost of the rare instance of thievery.
The Internet will also eventually settle into a comfortable balance built on sensible commerce. (You pays for what you gits.) Why not put energy toward serving the 95% of customers who are going to be trustworthy, rather than put undue time and attention on the 5% who won’t be?

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/07ml21.html

SideBar
Mikael Karlsson
Researching Your Markets

Are your promotional efforts right on target or do they miss the mark? In the world of direct marketing, relevant marketing is a term that defines what your target market prefers and how to get the right promotion to that market. In the case of photobuyers (your target market) it basically means that the more you know about the buyer you are sending your marketing materials to, the better off you are.
The concept is simple. Do your homework. Research what the photobuyer's purchasing preferences are and apply that information to your marketing strategies. Examples of relevant information you can seek out to build effective marketing efforts, are: 1) what computer system does the photobuyer use? Do they accept digital preview scans? If so, what format do they prefer? Is their computer format Windows, or another? 2) Do they welcome update postcards, sell-sheets, periodic e-mails, travel itineraries, personal phone calls or faxed reminders?

In all marketing efforts, detail knowledge can mean the difference between success and failure. Targeted marketing (rifling) is much more efficient and produces better results than broad marketing (shotgunning); this is a well-known fact in the direct marketing industry. Another well-known fact is that marketing tailored to specific prospects and their preferences is even more efficient.
DOING YOUR HOMEWORK

How do you discover this vital information about your prospects? Most often, you can find out this 'relevant information' by establishing yourself as an important resource to the photobuyer (if your specialized photography subject matter matches their specialized interest areas, you are an important resource to them).
Then send an e-mail inquiry to the photobuyers you work with and simply ask them to supply the information you need. This can be in the form of a small survey, or some straight-out questions with multiple choice answers.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/sbar9.html

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This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Thienna Ho (http://folio.photosource.com/2663)
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The Memory Card
Raw or JPEG?
by David Arnold and Gail Rutman

When photographers went from black-and-white to color, most stopped doing their own developing and printing, thus gaining convenience, but giving up the power to control the processing of their photos. Digital has brought that power back. Higher end digital cameras now give you the option of shooting in either a raw format, where you control the processing decisions, or JPEG, where your control is limited. Raw means more time at the computer, but can yield higher quality, and thus more saleable, photos.
Recently, in Outdoor Photographer, George Lepp argued that “If a JPEG is made under normal conditions and exposure is on the money, you’d be hard-pressed to tell it from a raw image that you spent considerable effort to optimize.” Those are pretty big ifs. What are “normal conditions?” The conditions editorial stock photographers face often involve excessive contrast, non-standard color balance, and lighting situations that can fool even the best meters. And how often is your exposure “on the money?” Certainly under highly controlled studio conditions, but that’s not where most of us shoot.
Raw images retain all the data the camera records, and in a 12 or 14-bit format. This will allow you to make dramatic exposure and white balance adjustments without sacrificing image integrity as you convert to, and work in, a 16-bit format. With JPEG, however, the camera does the conversion, interpolating and ultimately discarding precious pixels to give you an 8-bit image to work with. This translates into 256 brightness levels instead of 65,536, and results in rougher transitions and decreased quality when you adjust brightness or color, bring out shadow detail, etc.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen679.html

Stick To Your Theme

"I think I'll choose a Pepsi," the lady says in front of the vending machine.
Out comes the soft drink can of her choice.
She makes a choice based on preference (or need) and makes payment for it. Vertical marketing works much in the same way. If you were to open the interior of the machine, you would find that the soft drink cans are all lined up in a vertical row. All soft drinks of one selection are slotted into one vertical column, ready for dispensing.
There's no crossover. The cans must be lined up in the same dispensing vertical row, or they will deliver a wrong selection to the customer.
If you were the serviceman and haphazardly placed the cans in the machine in random positions, the results would be chaotic and unsatisfactory to customers.

NO CENTRAL THEME

Most beginning stock photographers make the mistake of building a stock file in random fashion, with no focussed marketing themes. Their picture-taking choices are "all across the board."

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen108.html

Don’t steal the photo
Court Interprets Basis for Statutory Copyright Infringement Damages
by Joel Hecker, Esq

As you are probably aware, the 1976 Copyright Act authorizes the Court, in its discretion, to award statutory damages of up to $30,000, which may be increased up to $150,000 per infringement, if the infringement is willful. To be eligible for statutory damages, a plaintiff must, of course, have registered the underlying image prior to the infringement or within three months of first publication.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (comprising Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire), in reversing the District Court, has changed the prevailing interpretation of measuring statutory damages under the Copyright Act for at least those states comprising the First Circuit.
The case, Hernandez, et al v. Sonolux Records, involved the production of 186 recordings of two copyrighted songs by Guillermo Venegas-Lloveras, a noted composer, on sixteen different albums. After the defendant defaulted, a judgment was entered for statutory damages of $1.6 million. This was calculated at $100,000 for each of the sixteen albums.
The defendant moved to set aside the default and the damage award on the grounds that the Court erred in its calculation. A second judge denied the motion to set aside the default, but reduced the award to $200,000, using the defendant's theory of calculation. Both sides appealed.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/legal117.html

Digital Notes
Here’s how to speed it up…
Your Visitors Won’t Wait
by Nathan Segal

On the web, how much time do you have to make a first impression?

About 20 seconds. If your site doesn't load (come up on the screen) by then, you're likely to lose your visitor.

A major culprit that contributes to a slow start on your screen is images that are too large (too many pixels). Unless your visitor has DSL or a cable connection, you can expect that your site will be sluggish throughout the visitor’s session if you employ large files (pictures) on your site.

Here’s one way to solve the problem. When you create files (images) for the web, use the Save for Web option in the File menu. And when you save that file, check the loading times for different speeds, especially for users running on 56K connections.

I guarantee it will be a real eye-opener.

Some Common Questions:

How large is a web image when it’s too large? Generally, I try to limit file sizes to no more than 20K each. There are exceptions, such as an image that has a large amount of information.

Slicing.jpg (see: slicing.jpg 2/1/2006)

If that’s the case, I would employ image slicing. This is where the image is divided into sections. In Photoshop and ImageReady, slicing allows you divide a single image into multiple smaller files, where each slice is an independent file. Each section will load as an image on its own. This gives the user something to look at as the page loads and is much faster than trying to load a large image. If you need to use image slicing it is recommended that the total image size not exceed 100K.

Saveforweb.jpg

How will we know what is large? This will be determined by using the Save for Web feature in Photoshop, which will give you information about different file sizes and their loading times, as based on using a (slow) 28.8 K (kilobytes per second) modem.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/dn4.html

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS

Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL.

A battle erupts over the right to market MARILYN PHOTOS:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06100/681034-28.stm

He took a PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS at the local community college on a whim. Now, has been named the Air Force's Photojournalist of the Year...
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/southwest/orl-swmilitaryphoto06apr09,0,2381647.story?track=rss

Travel Photographer of the Year Competition Opens Today - Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) is an international photographic competition designed to find the very best in TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY. Anyone can enter - young or old, amateur or professional and there's a total prize package worth over £60,000.
http://www.cameratown.com/news/news.cfm/hurl/id%7C2518

Getty Images Acquires STOCKBYTE, Its Largest Image Partner and a Leading Independent Creator of Royalty-Free Imagery - Stockbyte brings to Getty Images a broad range of versatile, wholly-owned content with global appeal. http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/24137.html

Chronicle photographers honored - The San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers Association has recognized the OUTSTANDING WORK of the photography staff of The Chronicle with a total of 16 awards, including its Photographer of the Year honor given to Kat Wade.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/04/09/MNGVTI6G3K1.DTL&feed=rss.news

Japanese photographer shares his VIEW OF PLAINS - "The space, the wide-open space, fascinates me because I am from the city, Kyoto, Japan, which is something like 123 million people," Sumiura said during a visit to Sioux Falls last week.
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060409/LIFE/604090304/1004/LIFE

ThinkTank Airport Security Bag giveaway - Enter up to once a day between now and April 30, 2006 for your chance to win a ThinkTank AIRPORT SECURITY BAG! http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section
_id=5&article_id=1936

PhotoBox and Photoways Merge To Form Europe's Biggest ONLINE PHOTO - The new group will continue to operate state-of-the-art laboratories in Paris and London with a combined capacity of over 1 million prints per day.
http://www.ephotozine.com/news/fullnews.cfm?NewsID=2879

Printers Increasingly Looking to DIGITAL WORK.
http://www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com/fastfacts/fast327.html

Notes on the future of OPEN RAW formats, and a look at DNG, by Stuart Nixon. http://www.openraw.org/

Hewlett-Packard plans digital PHOTOGRAPHY KIOSKS - Hewlett-Packard Co., looking to expand further into digital photography, plans to supply retailers with kiosks and consoles where consumers can instantly print pictures and create books and calendars with their favorite photos.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/04/09/
100bus_kiosks001.cfm

TURKISH INTERNATIONAL Photograph Festival. There will be a festival to be organized soon by important institutions from Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=
culture&alt=&trh=20060410&hn=31848

ATACAMA DESERT - Irrigation soaks up about 15 percent of available water in the Atacama, known as the driest place on Earth. In some spots, rainfall has never been recorded.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm
/0308/feature3/zoom1.html

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