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detroit police cars using copyrighted image?

omgsideburns

omgsideburns

New Member
from the article..
Update: Heather Kazmierczak, communications manage for the Downtown Detroit Partnership, sent this statement along:
"The skyline image of city of Detroit that is displayed on the new police and EMS units was obtained from an independent photographer, based in Canada, in 2013 and the rights were granted for use on the police cars."
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iprint

iprint

New Member
If Heather is being truthful, then said photographer has some explaining to do. Also why would the city of Detroit hire a Canadian photographer to take a photo of their city? Must not be any photographers in Detroit.
 
royster13

royster13

New Member
iprint said:
If Heather is being truthful, then said photographer has some explaining to do. Also why would the city of Detroit hire a Canadian photographer to take a photo of their city? Must not be any photographers in Detroit.
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Probably because in order to get that shot, one must be in Canada....Windsor Ontario...
 
C

crossface

New Member
The article says the photographer was from Grosse Pointe, this is a city bordering Detroit. It is not in Canada. Although, the statement is correct about needing to be in Windsor Canada to get that shot
 
iprint

iprint

New Member
royster13 said:
Probably because in order to get that shot, one must be in Canada....Windsor Ontario...
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Are US citizens not allowed to take photos in Canada? My point was more the fact that in a city that is hurting as bad as Detroit, why would they send business outside of their city? Also, have you looked at the two photos in question? The probability that two photos were taken from the same vantage point with the same clouds and same lighting is highly unlikely.
 
dale911

dale911

President
pretty annoying

iprint said:
Are US citizens not allowed to take photos in Canada? My point was more the fact that in a city that is hurting as bad as Detroit, why would they send business outside of their city? Also, have you looked at the two photos in question? The probability that two photos were taken from the same vantage point with the same clouds and same lighting is highly unlikely.
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It's not a spectacular photo in any way. I'm sure the city has plenty of photographers, even within the police department. If they like an image of the skyline, why not just go over and shoot it and then add color where needed to get it to look like what they want. The original photographer really shouldn't be able to copyright the photo as art anyway when the subject of the photograph is public domain. It's pretty ridiculous. If the photo really was owned by the photographer, he knows the city is broke anyway and should be honored that someone liked it enough to use it or use something similar. Everyone is always out to get paid. Certainly not what this country was founded on.
 
skyhigh

skyhigh

New Member
dale911 said:
It's not a spectacular photo in any way. I'm sure the city has plenty of photographers, even within the police department. If they like an image of the skyline, why not just go over and shoot it and then add color where needed to get it to look like what they want. The original photographer really shouldn't be able to copyright the photo as art anyway when the subject of the photograph is public domain. It's pretty ridiculous. If the photo really was owned by the photographer, he knows the city is broke anyway and should be honored that someone liked it enough to use it or use something similar. Everyone is always out to get paid. Certainly not what this country was founded on.
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Are you serious? The skyline may be public domain, but HIS photo is not. If it were that simple, why didn't they send the secretary out with a polariod , to capture the shot? Thats like saying someone could steal your sign layout, and rationalize it by saying, YOU do not own the alphabet.

He should be honored that someone liked it enough to steal it??? LMAO really? Given that his profession is a professional photographer, that dosen't put food on the table, now does it?

Ole Ben Franklin didn't invent the kite, or the key dangling from the string either......let alone the bolt of lightning he attracted.
 
The Vector Doctor

The Vector Doctor

Chief Bezier Manipulator
ah yes the update was added after I posted the link to the story. I wonder if he has a case since it was only a mockup. I think many stock photo sites allow for the usage of mockups since they are usually low res and stamped with a watermark.

although i don't believe his photo was made available at a stock photo site. It is an unfortunate side effect of displaying your photos on public sites
 
phototec

phototec

New Member
UPDATE from the phototgraper - Bobby Alcott

Here is an UPDATE from the phototgraper - Bobby Alcott:

First of all, thanks to all of you for the outpouring of support. It means the world to me.

My good friend Jeff Wattrick from Deadline Detroit showed me photos of the ACTUAL cars they rolled out today, and I'm thrilled to say that they are NOT using my photo! They bought a photo from a Canadian artist, from what I understand.
That being said, the DDP is still responsible for using my photo for t...he mockups and rollouts that they disseminated across the media for months. However, when it came to the cars, they evidently did it right.
I'm very happy this is over so we can all get on with our lives. However, if anything positive comes out of this, I hope that people start respecting copyright of all types.

Thanks again. Lets all get some rest now.

https://www.facebook.com/bobbya?fref=ts
 
dale911

dale911

President
I'm not saying to steal the guy's photo. I'm saying that a skyline pic isn't a difficult thing to shoot and shoot well and that they very well could send anyone with a decent camera out to take the pic to replicate the image without stealing it. As far as mockups are concerned since we now know that was the case, I'm sure I'm not the only one that uses copyrighted work for a mockup until we get the go ahead and purchase the image. I'm not buying an image that I'm not going to use just so a client can see what it "could" look like. That's just dumb. We purchase the art for using it.
 
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