“A photographer has penned an open letter to Taylor Swift accusing her of taking lucrative rights to images – just hours after she criticised Apple for not paying artists fairly,” Gemma Mullin reports for The Daily Mail. “”
“Jason Sheldon, a freelance photographer based in Birmingham, West Midlands, claims that copyright of all pictures taken of the pop star during concerts are passed to her agency after their first use,” Mullin reports. “This means that following the initial publication of photographs, for which a freelancer usually accepts a one-off fee, he cannot further exploit his work.”
It appears to be a complete rights grab, and demands that you are granted free and unlimited use of our work, worldwide, in perpetuity… You say in your letter to Apple that “Three months is a long time to go unpaid.” But you seem happy to restrict us to being paid once, and never being able to earn from our work ever again, while granting you the rights to exploit our work for your benefit for all eternity. How are you any different to Apple? … Photographers need to earn a living as well. Like Apple, you can afford to pay for photographs so please stop forcing us to hand them over to you while you prevent us from publishing them more than once, ever. — Jason Sheldon
Read more in the full article here.
Jason Sheldon’s full open letter to Taylor Swift is here.
MacDailyNews Take: The proverbial shoe is now on Ms. Swift’s foot.
SEE ALSO:
Taylor Swift wins streaming battle as Apple backs down on royalty payments – June 22, 2015
Apple responds to Taylor Swift, indie label complaints; will pay royalties during Apple Music 3-month free trial – June 22, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Lynn Weiler,” “Dan K.,” and “Les Cayes” for the heads up.]