FabSwingers.com forum: your images, pix, etc etc

By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

UK.Gov passes Instagram Act:

All your pics belong to everyone now

For the first time anywhere in the world, the Act will permit the widespread commercial exploitation of unidentified work - the user only needs to perform a "diligent search". But since this is likely to come up with a blank, they can proceed with impunity. The Act states that a user of a work can act as if they are the owner of the work (which should be you) if they're given permission to do so by the Secretary of State.

"People can now use stuff without your permission," explained photo rights campaigner Paul Ellis. "To stop that you have to register your work in a registry - but registering stuff is an activity that costs you time and money. So what was your property by default will only remain yours if you take active steps, and absorb the costs, if it is formally registered to you as the owner."

And right now, Ellis says, there's only one registry, PLUS. Photographers, including David Bailey, condemned the government for rushing through the legislation before other registries - such as the Copyright Hub - could sort themselves out.

"The mass of the public will never realise they've been robbed," thinks Ellis. The radical free-our-information bureaucrats at the Intellectual Property Office had already attempted to smuggle orphan works rules through via the Digital Economy Act in 2010, but were rebuffed. Thanks to a Google-friendly Conservative-led administration, they've now triumphed.

By *issHottieBottieWoman
over a year ago

Kent

I'm on Instagram and this was brought up a while back. After a few emails etc i think it was confirmed that only pics that are public will be affected. So any pics or profiles that are set to private/friends only shouldn't be affected x

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

High profile legal cases will mean this is reworked or dropped for the previous legal frame work it is just a matter of time.

Furthermore it is still illegal to use a photograph to portray someone in a less than positive light and that in some cases can carry a prison term entering the criminal rather than civil law angle of things.

Regards

Mark on behalf of M and J