If it was an MP3….
Do you ever get the feeling you’re alone….
UK Gov nationalises orphans and bans non-consensual photography in public.
The Digital Economy Bill, what’s yours is ours
The end game is now in sight. The Digital Economy Bill is now expected to become law within the next 6 weeks. It introduces orphan works usage rights, which - unless amended, which HMG says it will not - will allow the commercial use of any photograph whose author cannot be identified through a suitably negligent search. That is potentially about 90% of the photos on the internet.
Copyright in photos is essentially going to cease to exist, since there is no ineradicable way of associating ownership details short of plastering your name right across the image….
Please read more here:
A bit of a joke really the way the Government treats copyright issues when it comes to images and photographers yet defends and supports artists and private organisations that makes such a fuss of illegal mp3 downloads.
They own the music, we own our pictures, tell me what’s different.
So in 6 weeks (or before) there will be no more unrestricted images on the site, all will be watermarked and as a consequence the Picture Library will not have any public access, so already the idea is having an impact on the way photographers work and has set me back a few more weeks to prepare the Library.
It’s a sad day indeed but an unfortunate side effect of this governments ignorance and lack of
support for our industry.
Site update….
….eventually.
The site will be updated soon now we are back on track, not been available for some time due to RealLife™ and some projects have fallen behind quite seriously but by January all should be well.
Below are just a couple of previously unseen pictures of John Vanderslice from the Roadhouse (Manchester) that we came across whilst browsing some old archives and are among the pictures to be added, (it also doesn’t feel right if no pictures are posted) we are also looking at the Picture Library Software and are at the moment testing a new (Opensource) product that will make using the Library easier for all concerned.
What time is it ?
Time to post me thinks, kids are off school, life is busy, everything goes wrong at the wrong time, not enough money, not enough time, just a normal day then!
But, off to Leeds Festival
next week and am already excited at seeing Tenacious D what a change from dreary guitar bands, having forgot more bands that I’ve seen than most will do in a lifetime you need some freshness injected into the mix and I think ‘T D’ may do that, I know, I know good bands aren’t dreary at all but there’s only so much twang! you can take after listening for so long, I need a break!
Other favs may go and see, (not just for me and if stage times don’t clash) include, (in no particular order) Our Fold, Rage against the Machine, Queens of the Stone Age, CSS, We Are Scientists, Twisted Wheel, Digitalism, amongst others….
Might take some photos this time but the trusty Sony T5 is not being so trusty any more and my favourite compact (Casio QV-5700) may be a little slow for such an occasion but we’ll see.
Last year we had a fantastic time and didn’t hit the stages until about 6pm just chilling in the warmth of the summer sun with a cold beer and my favourite friend.
A special mention to Tony at Scream Promotionsand XFM Manchester especially Hanna and Rick Shaw. Thank you.
Love the T-Shirt, taken at Leeds 2000.
Smashing Pumpkins @ M.E.N. Arena
Went to the M.E.N. Arena last Friday to see the Smashing Pumpkins, now I know they are an established band and have been around since 1998 but they’ve never been my cup of tea, I went with a big (from their older stuff) fan and I must say after seeing them at Leeds was actually looking forward to it.
I don’t claim to know much about their songs and have only recently listened to ‘Zeitgeist’ and it was a little ‘Placebo(ish)’ for my liking (again not a big fan of Placebo but have seen them live and they are an excellent live band and thoroughly enjoyed it) so off we went.
We had excellent seats and on arrival the support band were already playing but didn’t catch our attention, so off to the bar we headed, a couple of beers later and seated comfortably the band came on, for me personally the acoustic songs were the highlights of the night, Billy Corgan and an acoustic guitar was musical heaven, the heavier songs were not to my liking but played with passion and enthusiasm and the arena did liven up a little when the more popular and newer songs were played.
One thing I did notice was the crowd seemed a little sombre for such an occasion and one person did mention if in fact the crowd were asleep at one point, overall though a great night of quality music from a great live band.
A big thank you to XFM Manchester.
2008….
Well well, here we are, back a few days late but back we are, we’ve had to update WP (Wordpress) from the old version a few times as a priority and the new Library Software is just going through it’s final test before going live, all we can say at this time is, “It’s not Gallery2….!”
Back soon….
