Given that Burning Man is on right now or possibly just wrapped up, this issue is quite a relevant one. The organisers of Burning Man have claimed copyright ownership of any images taken at the Blackrock Desert festival. The move has been made to protect the participants from porn scandals after some photographers have sold their images to third parties who have then used them on completely unrelated and inappropriate websites.
On one hand I’m not fond of the Big Brother attitude of the organisers. What’s to say they aren’t going to find this website celebrating the festival, alongside gay content, inappropriate and demand the images be removed? Yet on the other hand I totally agree that the images taken of participants should not end up on sites that could cost them careers etc just because they’ve been out releasing their inner freak in the desert.
For the full article on the situation, click here.
Anyone out at Burning Man knows that photos are being taken, and they gladly pose. Exhibitionism and self expression are the roots of the event. The organizers have really gotten possesive and beaurocratic over the last few years. It used to be a totally free, expressive event. As it grew they started adding policies. Suddenly you had an assigned area for your art and permits and the like. Much of it is almost required, given the increasing number of people that show up. There are just so many rules now, and I think it worked better when the event was smaller. Just the ticket price to be involved is outrageous. It seems to restrict the people who get to participate. Us poor artists could never afford to go anyway.
This is a threat and nothing more. A number of bodies, world wide, have attempted in the past to claim ‘copyright ownership’ of all photos taken at an event - however, no one has successfully been able to change Copyright Laws to allow them to do this. Copyright exists with the person TAKING the photo and, whilst they can assign copyright ownership to another party, this has to be done individually and explicitly.
The problem is - many people believe an organiser can do this - they can’t and, under present laws, never can.
You are an Australian - try searching for similar action in Oz with the V8 Supercars some years ago and you will see they tried exactly the same thing and failed in their bid as well.
In some ways this could be protective of the participants. When you think how uninhibited some of the behaviour of the participants is and how conservative some of their employers and then combine this with little protection from unfair dismissal laws, it is possible that many woould want zero chance of their bosses seeing pics.
Just to add to my previous comment - in Oz at least - if you attend a public event of any kind you have no protection against anyone taking or using photographs or images from that event. So, if tickets are sold to this event, I think you will find that the only way anyone attending doesn’t want theiir boss to see possible photos of them is to, well - go home :)
To add to my previous comment; I think this stems from the Adam Lambert photos during American Idol. Those pics of him kissing guys at Burning Man cost him votes, and he may have won otherwise. There is some measure of protection, but it just seems to possesive of the free spirit of the place.