Here's what happened.



An employee made a mistake. We recognize that a mistake was made. It was
easy to see how a mistake was made since usually people in the community
who, when invited to an event we held usually give us photos that were
snapped at our events for free and it's easy to miss the copyright on
Flickr. Thomas Hawk, for instance, takes lots of photos at our events and
gives them to us for free since he's appreciative for the community work we
do.



We asked around what a photo like the one that we used by Lan Bui was worth.
I asked several professional photographers, the average fee was $300. Lan
was not commissioned to take photos and an employee made a mistake by using
a photo and not making sure we had the rights to use it before using it.



But Lan wants $3,000.



We have offered Lan something between those two prices which we feel is fair
($1,000 is the price I saw offered by PodTech CEO John Furrier, which is
more than 3x what most professionals in the marketplace charge for this kind
of work).



Lan wants $3,000. He believes his work is worth that and believes that there
isn't room for negotiation on this issue.



So we're at an impass.



I'm personally sorry for the whole way this thing has been handled, though,
and still would like to find a way to get the two parties to reach closure
on this problem.



I do want to make sure Lan gets compensated properly for his intellectual
property, but we want to reach a fair price and one that's based on what
professionals expect.



Robert Scoble



###



From: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com [mailto:videoblogging@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Mike Meiser
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 1:58 P
To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [videoblogging] Re: Hey PodTech - What's up with Lan's image?



Well... I'm glad people haven't resorted to name calling.

Got to say, while I love podtech I'm a little disapointed at their
response. The accussations about lan presenting a one sided story...
is it his responsibility to present both sides? Is that even possible?
And Scoble's negative conjecture about "loosing money on the
vloggies"... is an unecissary and unwarranted resentful remark toward
the whole community which reflects poorly on podtech. It is perhaps
the thing that disturbs me most about this. Very disapointing. As
for bringing up deaths in related people's families... very
unforetunate remark.

I don't know what other side to the story there is... The facts are
this... Podtech used lan's photo... mistakes happen... noone here
holds a grudge... but they've had more then enough time to resolve it
and haven't.

There's no need to drag the whole thing through the mud on either
side... I just hope podtech and lan can resolve the issue so we can
leave it quickly and quietly behind. I don't believe it's indicative
of any larger issue... it's not like some printing company is selling
prints of dozens of Lan's photos for hundreds of dollars each. It was
an event to promote videobloggers.

I'd hope because of that context Lan would accept an appology from
Podtech but that's up to Lan.

On a related note, perhaps this will provide some perspective. Some
kids from Maryland got their yearbooks recently to find a slew of
their facebook pictures in them.

How's that for intellectual property theft? How would you have liked
to recieve a yearbook only to find a bunch of your pictures from your
blog in it? Makes a somewhat subtle duotone photo in the background
of a banner seem like a relatively minor incident by comparison. Not
to diminish the injustice to Lan, but there are worse things that
could have happened.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070627/012707.shtml

I hope the matter gets resolved quickly. The only shame here is that
it hasn't been resolved already and was allowed to drag out.

Group hug? :)

-Mike
mmeiser.com/blog
mefeedia.com

On 6/29/07, Adam Quirk, Wreck & Salvage <quirk@...
<mailto:quirk%40wreckandsalvage.com> > wrote:
> I've been surprised by all the vitriol. I'd have thought that Podtech
would
> have built up a couple brownie points with y'all by now, what with their
> paying you real money, and hosting awards shows for us all to circle-jerk
> at.
>
> Maybe the lesson here is to get paid First? Once you put something online,
> you don't own it anymore than you can claim to own a rainbow hovering
above
> your house. It's in the public consciousness, part of the firehose of
> experiences that we all consume, transitory experiences. I think
especially
> in this case since it's a digital photo of Casey McKinnon, if anyone has a
> claim to some money it would be her. If someone else made a recording of a
> song I was playing, and royalties were to be paid for that recording, I'd
> likely be the one to receive them. But I wouldn't demand them. Something
> just sits wrong with me when I hear about people billing other people for
> services that they weren't hired to provide.
>
> Creative Commons is pretty silly, not as silly as traditional copyright,
but
> pretty silly.
>
> I'm heading out of town now so I won't be able to respond to any shit
slung
> my way for a while :)
>
> P.S. Lan, you're a badass photog, I'm glad I found your work via this
mess.
>
> -Adam
>
>
> On 6/29/07, tim@... <mailto:tim%40frenchmaidtv.com>
<tim@... <mailto:tim%40frenchmaidtv.com> > wrote:
> >
> > Can we give this a rest for a week or two and see what happens?
> >
> > This group does some very cool things and discovers news worthy
> > information all the time and this has the two side talking.
> >
> > It sounds like something is going to happen and that this will come
> > to a settlement but I don't think that will happen untill after the
> > 4th of July so can we pause for a little while, bring it back up
> > later if we need to and move on to some fun stuff like What iPhone
> > line is Steve Garfield standing in? or Why is Ask a Ninja going to
> > Israel ?
> >
> >
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > Tim Street
> > Creator/Executive Producer
> > French Maid TV
> > The Viral Video of "How To's" by French Maids
> > http://frenchmaidtv.com
> > Subscribe for FREE on
> > <ahref="http://www.frenchmaidtv.com/itunes " target="_blank">iTunes</a>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Jun 29, 2007, at 9:46 AM, Devlon Duthie wrote:
> >
> > > I'm with Carl.
> > >
> > > If we want to use crowd 'weight' wouldn't an email/blog/pr frenzy
> > > be more
> > > effective?
> > >
> > > also, just saying :)
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Devlon
> > >
> > > http://devlonduthie.com | http://mefeedia.com | http://node-64.com/
> > > blog
> > > MSN: du.th.ied
> > > AIM: devlond
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com>
> > > [mailto:videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com> ]
> > > On Behalf Of Carl Weaver
> > > Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 8:02 AM
> > > To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com>
> > > Subject: [videoblogging] Re: Hey PodTech - What's up with Lan's image?
> > >
> > > I have a problem with raising money for Lan on the list. Yes, Lan
> > > deserves his fees (and 3 times that because of the infringement) but
> > > to raise it ourselves lets Podtech off the hook a little bit. Okay, so
> > > Lan is paid - why should Podtech cough up the dough then?
> > >
> > > I'm just sayin'...
> > >
> > > Carl
> > >
> > > Carl Weaver
> > > Photographer
> > > http://www.carlweaver.com
> > > http://www.camerasamurai.com - Photography education, news, tips
> > > and more
> > > http://dcmetrostories.com - DC Metro Stories: Stories about the
> > > people,
> > > places
> > > and events in the DC Metro area
> > > http://nextlifeintheafternoon.com - A Journey Through Thailand
> > >
> > > Michael Sullivan wrote:
> > > >
> > > > no comment....
> > > >
> > > > except that i bet we could organize a little crowdfunding effort
> > > to pay
> > > lan
> > > > before podtech does.
> > > > care for some competition, podtech?
> > > >
> > > > lan, how much do we need to raise?
> > >
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Adam Quirk
> Wreck & Salvage
> 551.208.4644
> Brooklyn, NY
> http://wreckandsalvage.com
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]