Posts Tagged “Photoshoppers”

Due to unforseen circumstances (his birth), Purnell wasn’t available to make the original shoot but turned up 21 years later to pose. He was unaware his photo was to be ‘merged with the original.

Produced for the Independent On Sunday. It seems like Iain Dale had the same idea last Friday but I had to wait for mine to appear before posting here.

And it looks like Paris Hilton’s picked a spot for him as well. He’ll probably change his name to James Pornell…

He’s been busy on other projects but it’s good to see he’s back.
Very good news.
Go visit.
The site seems to be down right now. Hopefully not Usmanov related.

Tim at Stablesound who writes music and lyrics and plays a multitude of instruments has launched a new site The Audio Mangle.

He can create voiceovers, sound effects, write a whole song, play and record it while juggling three melting ice creams on a unicycle without messing up the carpet.

He has worked on several projects for Greenpeace, The TUC, No2ID, Friends Of The Earth and Camcorder Guerillas amongst others.
I’ve worked with him and eclectech on a few things and not only is his work quality but he meets deadlines consistently.
The only downside is, that in such a competitive world, he is a nice bloke.

So, if you want to hire a bloke about whom Burt Bacharach once said “who?”, do it.

I’ve mentioned Phillip at Biro Art before.

He produces most of his very detailed work with Bic biros and has a very entertaining site which is well worth a visit.
The site has a shop which sells amongst other things some monumental prints, measuring up to 6 ft. tall. These are not enlargements of smaller drawings. Several square feet of coated, matt paper are densely populated by more cross-hatched characters than there are entries in Iain Dale’s blogroll.
If certain misguided politicians found out about the overpopulation of Biro Art’s ‘canvasses’, they’d be trying to repatriate some of the creatures back into Phillip’s grey matter via his Bic pen.

Now Phillip has a glossy softback book out featuring his ANThology series of drawings.
You can buy it directly by clicking on the button in my blogroll.

Click on the image below to see some of the book contents in his ANThology gallery.

If anyone else can include the Biro-Art book button on their blog, I’m sure Phillip would be grateful.

Just another couple of clips to keep you entertained but which put EMAP’s contribution to Journalism.co.uk’s article in a bit more context.

Commission You

Tragedy, Water Under The Bridge

Again, if they didn’t believe I created the images they published, why would they ask me to do some work for them?

Journalism.co.uk has published a story on the fight between EMAP’s Zoo magazine and viral creators. Link

Zoo assistant editor Steve Nash, claims, amongst many things :
“Unfortunately there have been occasions in the past where people have claimed that an image was theirs and have demanded substantial payments but have failed to produce anything sufficient to back up their claims.”

Well, there’s a long story attached to this which is partially covered by previous EMAP posts.
Link to previous posts.

But let’s go back in history on this.
When I first approached Zoo magazine about using images I created, I was asking only this :
THAT ZOO REWARD THE CREATOR OF THE VIRAL OF THE WEEK WITH THE SAME PRIZE THAT THE PERSON WHO SENT IN THE IMAGE RECEIVED.

Zoo agreed to this and then went back on its word (No use denying Zoo - I have it recorded.)
It was only after this that I sought payment for my images.
So, to reiterate Steve Nash’s selective point that “Unfortunately … have demanded substantial payments… claims.” omits a very important bit of history.
And as for substantial - Well I suppose it could be - but not for each image - FOR THE TOTAL OF FIFTEEN (that I know of) it could add up to a reasonable amount.

Then it went to their solicitors. (Wiggin)

I had yet another promise from EMAP that they would not use my images and I confirmed my website so they could check against the images they claimed were ’sent in’. They promised that they would avoid using the images that corresponded to those on my website.
You can hear it here :

This was on the 14th August 2006.
THEN, ABOUT 3 WEEKS LATER, IN EDITION 134 OF ZOO (8 to 14 September 2006) 2 MORE OF MY IMAGES WERE PUBLISHED BY EMAP.

A few months later, I blocked EMAP’s IP address on my image server. They didn’t seem to be using my site to prevent publishing my images - quite the reverse in my opinion.

Then, the attitude of Zoo and its agents hardened.

We advised Zoo’s agents of the proof I was going to supply to show I had created the ‘virals’. They did not state then that this was unacceptable. After 2 weeks of collating the information, the proof was dismissed almost immediately.

Funnily enough, others providing a similar amount of proof to Zoo directly have seen the mag dispatch prizes, sometimes up to the value of £450 to some blokes who make a phone call.

This time, they decided to rip off Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads.

You can see his response here.

For those of you you don’t know the history (and it’s a long one), just type in Zoo or EMAP in the search box on my site.
In one of the posts you can hear a recording of one of Zoo’s editors basically acknowledging that I created/composed the images they ran, but then of course they wheeled in the solicitors to cover their arses.
I’ve had at least 15 (FIFTEEN) images used by Zoo. Now I’ve blocked EMAP from seeing my images, they’ve moved onto other victims.

Publishers - for advice on how to rip off viral creators, you can go to the website NUTS2ZOO.

I chased Nuts magazine this week as they had not confirmed they had made a donation to Amnesty for the unauthorised use of my Camden Signpost Image (Now a postcard for anyone who’s interested.) Nuts promised to get back to me but nothing yet.
That’s now been at least two months since they first made the promise.

When I was talking with Nuts, I took the opportunity to advise them that they had also recently published in their ’spam’ page, an image by Peter Kennard

Some may have seen his original image on sale in Santa’s Ghetto.

The Nuts version just had a strip and a few words added at the base, saying “Try moving into Number Ten now Gordon!”

Will this piracy ever stop ? - Nope. The publishers are all covering for each other now. As soon as I mentioned this situation on the Guardian blogs in a PPA discussion, there was a rapid put-down posted by someone who could not properly conceal his identity (a pretty obvious username which was based on the address of a publisher of similar yoof mags.)

Dickheads, the lot of them.

And, as I’ve said before, it’s the big film companies who, through Zoo magazine, are offering inducements (in the form of prizes) for people to dick around with copyright and yet they’re the first to whine about their rights being compromised.

Very importantly EMAP and their sponsors are doing this on a commercial basis. The majority of people who are being ripped off are amateurs but the companies are sourcing free editorial and/or advertising on the back of this.

And do remember, for anyone who decided to send Zoo your own work via certain email addresses or even upload something on a blog you’ve created via their site, you have given them the rights to make use of it in any way they want to.
If they want to sell it, publish it anywhere, make a dvd, then you have given them the authority to do so.
Just check their terms and conditions below :

“User-submitted content

If you send any text, images, audio or other content to this website you accept that the files sent become the sole property Emap Consumer Media Limited and that we shall have the right to use that content and make it available to the public on this website and otherwise. All material must comply with the Online Forum rules, set out below.”

And

“Online forums and blogs - Rules of Acceptable Use
…..- You grant Zoo or Emap Consumer Media Limited the unrestricted right to use, reproduce, translate and distribute any material you place on the site.”