Insight Community | Step2 - Success Models - Recent discussions in Ask Techdirt

Photo Booth Copyright?

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:54:05 +0000

I'm building an art installation for an upcoming festival. The installation will consist of a photo booth where people can pay 10 cents, push a button, and have their photo taken, as well as computer screens around town in store front's windows displaying the photos.
Once a photo is taken, it's uploaded to a website which cycles through all the photos taken so far. This site is what the screens in store fronts will be showing.

My question is about the copyright of the photos taken. My intention was to include a small note in the photo booth stating that all photos would be taken under a CC0 license, and after the festival provide an easy download of all the photos taken to anyone interested. I was thinking that this would make it easy for someone to build on the photos if they had an idea for another artwork.

However, I was just thinking that if the photos are created by the participant pressing a button, then they would probably own the copyright on their portrait, and I wouldn't really be in a position to release the photos under CC0.

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts about how I might deal with this. Am I wrong in how I understand the situation? Is there a different way I could freely release the photos?

Two notes:

1. It is clear to people when they enter the booth that their photo is going to be displayed publicly, rather than privately like a traditional photo booth.

2. This is in Canada, though I believe the photography laws are similar to the US.

Can I use Batman & Superman

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:47:33 +0000

Long time reader, first time poster, but I had to ask, I've written a short story wherein the world it's set in (Metropolis) is lived in by batman (but a future where Robin took over the mantle), and a whole host of superheroes (like Spiderman married Wonder woman, The Thing does specialised porn etc), and Superman (now married to Lois Lane with a son), but the main story's about the son of superman and a new Robin - and it's (supposed to be) humourous.

If I tried to include it in a book selling on Amazon and itunes, would I be looking at troubles? bearing in mind, the story probably wouldn't work if I had to substitute the heroes.

I'm wondering if satire wouldn't cover the fair use thing. Thanks for any help.

Tony F.

Help Us Add More Gear To The Techdirt Insider Shop

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:37:25 +0000

We want to keep our Insider Shop stocked with an always-expanding selection of fresh Techdirt gear. This ongoing thread is for you to help us decide what to offer next, and to submit your own ideas.

We're interested in new products, and we also want to find out if there are demands we're not meeting with our existing line. We've already received a few requests through the store, and they've been included in the list below so we can see if others want the same thing.

We've also added some ideas and draft designs for new t-shirts. The Seized Tee and DMCA Tee have been very popular so far, but we want to extend the selection. Please vote on the ideas you like, and submit your own as well.

In addition to the gear itself, we also want to know about bundles. Our limited edition Staff Bundle was a huge hit, and we're definitely planning more limited offerings in the future. We're also considering some other packages like a t-shirt bundle, but maybe there are popular combinations that we haven't thought of, so please let us know what you'd like to see.

This thread is dedicated to physical Techdirt gear, or bundles of physical gear with digital items. We'll be launching another thread soon to discuss the new blog features and subscription packages.

Discussion Questions On Copyrfraud -- Techdirt Book Club

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:38:55 +0000

The Techdirt Book Club book for the month of April is Copyfraud by Jason Mazzone -- discussing how copyright owners often "overclaim" the rights granted to them by copyright. We published an excerpt from the book earlier this month (part 1 and part 2) and hopefully some of you had a chance to check out the full book. At this point, we're collecting questions that people can ask Jason, which we'll use to kick off the discussion. Please place your questions below and vote on everyone else's questions as well! Thanks.

Techdirt Book Club: Consent of the Networked, by Rebecca MacKinnon

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:59:59 +0000

Okay, as promised earlier this month, we're doing a "book club" discussion around Rebecca MacKinnon's Consent of the Networked. This Step2 discussion is a place for people to submit and vote on questions that we'll use in the discussion itself. If you have questions you want to discuss submit them below and as people vote, we'll send the best questions to Rebecca and have a wider discussions with everyone at the end of the month...

Also, I know there was some concern that people were unable to obtain a copy of the book. If you still want to participate, Rebecca recently did a great interview with Jerry Brito on his Surprisingly Free podcast. There she discusses many of the key themes in the book, which should give you a good starting point for questions to be asked...

Looking for informational reading on the industry

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:57:33 +0000

I'd like to keep current and informed about the music industry. Techdirt does a great job of reporting news regarding music industry and its discontents. But are there any other blogs that you recommend reading? Things where I can learn about mergers and acquisitions, parent and subsidiary labels, touring and album revenues, etc.

Ways to grow a non-artistic content provider

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:44:14 +0000

Although my primary career is in IT, I've always done a lot of construction on the side. Especially during the downswings in the economy. Over the years I've been asked to help out a lot of people with a few nagging problems in their homes.

An offshoot of this has been a series of YouTube videos that I've been putting together to show people exactly how to resolve common household problems. It started purely as a way to save people some money when doing easy fixes, but to my surprise I have recently received my first small payment from Google ads on the videos.

I've created a standalone website and I'm going to add a few "fun" projects to it as well, hoping to draw more viewers. My first step has been to add some analytics to the site and I've discovered a number of people are looking for some of my upcoming projects - particularly the poker table.

My question to TechDirt is this: what should I be doing next to promote the videos / grow my fanbase? I may be overly ambitious, but I hope to be on the DIY Network one day.