Battleangel

Via Boing Boing …

One of the benefits of digital photography – the fact that amateurs can take better-looking photos and doctor them using photo-editing software – is also becoming a bane. Photofinishing labs increasingly are refusing to print professional-looking photographs taken by amateurs.

The reason: Photofinishers are afraid of infringing on professional photographers’ copyrights.

Amateur photographer Zee Helmick encountered that problem when she went to pick up photos she had ordered at a Wal-Mart near her home in Henderson, Nev.

The clerk said the photos looked like a professional had taken them, Helmick said. And no matter how much Helmick protested that she, an amateur, had snapped the shots of her son, she said the clerk wouldn’t budge.

Helmick didn’t have a copyright release with her, so she offered to write a note stating that she had taken the photos. She said Wal-Mart refused even that.

Source: SignOnSanDiego

I dare anyone to come up with a reason why this development is not disturbing and why photographers should care if their work is being printed out by Joe Blow. They could have a reason to bitch if Corporation X prints their works for commercial ventures, but why the fuck would Corporation X print leaflets or quarterly earnings report or whatever with Wal-Mart? Feels like someone skipped over two pages at once here.

What is next? Are photographs property of the government? Or maybe the camera manufacturer?

Having said that, I’ve had some personal experience, or rather I friend of mine has, with some pretty narrowminded photographers. Which is in part due to the number of basket cases that think that they can make a living as photographers and when they find out they can’t, they turn to the suing and extortion game.