Friday, April 09, 2010

Don't be too good either!

[Thanks to Tommy]
Boots refuses to print photography student's snaps... because they are too GOOD, article.
She was challenged by staff who accused her of breaking copyright laws, which make it illegal to print professional photographs without their owner's permission.
[...] Miss Kulinsha asked her to take the portraits to show her family at home in Poland, where they do not have access to e-mail.
But because of the delay caused by Boots, Miss Kulinsha caught a plane home without the snaps.
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7 comments:

Aaron said...

I've had the same thing happen at a couple places in the States. Sometimes my business card is enough to "prove" I'm the photographer.

However, some stores seem to require a letter (who does that anymore?) from the photographer. I had one store who said they had to have a letter from the photographer, but that it couldn't be from me (the photographer). Crazy, and means I haven't been back.

I understand the motivation but with arbitrarily enforced rules I don't think it prevents any n'er-do-wells and frustrates honest folks.

dave nielsen said...

What's your opinion? Are they good enough for that mistake to have been made? I have no eye for that kind of thing. They look good, but I don't know if they would be mistaken for a pro's work or not. I know that if you took them to be printed at Wal-Mart or something this would not happen because they don't give a shit. They probably wouldn't even look at them.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

They're pretty good.

Very few amateurs put such are into the background, it's clearly from a studio.

Anonymous said...

Who are these boots people setting themselves up as photography experts?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Taking your question literally here, Boots is a big drugstore chain in the UK, they also often have small photoshops in their stores.

JohnO said...

I think Flickr deleted one of my accounts because a I had pics that looked like they came from a magazine.

When I recreated the account I put in my profile that I would never post images from magazines or the net. (I had not the first time around)

And expressed my surprise that folks thought some of my pics were publishable.

I even put in the description of my best photos that I wished I could recreate the beauty of these photos.


In another case, When local a portrait studio went out of business, they contacted all their past customers and offered to sell them the negatives for $1 each. Otherwise they would be destroyed.

When I went in to buy our negatives, I asked about rights.

The clerk simply said "You have the negatives, you have the rights."

"Umm, wrong."

So I called over the photographer and asked her to update the receipt with "Sale of negatives and all rights...{details of shoot}" then sign it herself.

She had no problem with that.

JohnO

Anonymous said...

She had no problem with that.

I bet she thought you were a giant douche.