Posts Tagged 'photographing concerts'

Is Lady Gaga A Copyright Bully?

Normally I’m all for multi-millionaire celebrities trying to protect what’s rightfully theirs, except in the case when it’s not theirs.

In a move that signals crushing amounts of hubris, Lady Gaga is demanding that photographers sign over the copyright to images taken at her concerts so that she owns them all.

Rolling Stone writes: “This an especially bold demand as the government has established that copyright exists the moment when a work is created, which in this case is the moment when a photographer clicks their shutter button.”

If this is attempt to control her image, it seems totally futile considering everyone has a cell phone camera these days. If it’s an effort to make more money, well, she made $64 million last year and was on the Forbes list as the fourth richest woman in Hollywood, so that’s just greedy.

As concert photographer and intellectual property lawyer David Atlas told Rolling Stone:

“Typically the person who has the least leverage gets the worst release,” Atlas says. “Maybe there’s a photographer that she likes who won’t have to sign the release form, but the people who get paid $125 to hang out for four hours at a concert have to sign this release. So on top of getting paid very little, they have no ongoing revenue stream from these photos whatsoever.”

Kenny Chesney Will Take Your Camera

Is Kenny Chesney an enemy of photography? In a strange move, the country star snatched a camera from a fan in the front row at his concert this past weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

“(Chesney) was like a person in front of me and he reached down, grabs the camera, shuts it, goes down the walkway and throws it on the stage.”

When the woman got it back her memory card was missing. Apparently video cameras are banned at Gillette, but she was taking still photos. And do we really believe Chesney is enforcing the stadium’s policy for them? That guy’s always been a little fishy, but this is just baffling.

Article via WCVBTV Boston



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