Guy Clapperton A photographer who takes a picture retains the copyright unless it is signed over to someone else. But if the picture is held electronically, international copyright law becomes null and void. Sounds ludicrous? Not according to Sygma, the French picture library that was recently acquired by Bill Gates_s picture giant, Corbis.
The company is involved in a legal wrangle after it refused to pay the photographers who took the pictures it sells, and who have signed nothing. The issue of intellectual rights _ who owns what on the Net _ is back, this time with reinforcements. There have been other small ripples. A few weeks ago, a small Internet service provider (ISP) _ Cix, for what it is worth, but it could have been anyone _ decided to update the terms and conditions applicable to its customers.
The new terms stated that the company had the right to reproduce elements of anything that had been uploaded to its servers. Several customers were furious; the company listened, and agreed to draft a new contract. The question of who owns a property on the Internet ought to be straightforward enough. According to the Berne convention, which is international, copyright in any work rests with its originator automatically, and needs to be reassigned expressly if any reproduction of a work is to take place.
Any competent lawyer will confirm that these laws apply in cyberspace as well as anywhere else _ but they will add that there need to be certain exceptions in the case of Internet companies. _There are a few ISPs that have changed their terms and conditions to provide a licence for the ISP to use a member_s content,_ comments Laura Anderson, partner at Bristows, a specialist information technology lawyer.
This is not the same as assigning any rights away, it simply allows the ISP a licence to reproduce a customer_s material.
_That makes sense because there is an implied licence anyway._ There needs to be. Web pages are displayed or _hosted_ by ISPs, not the customers, so the ISP needs to be able to hold a legal copy. Presumably, it was allowing for this sort of reproduction of member-originated content that gave rise to the Cix issue in the first place, but the vehemence of the response demonstrates how sensitive the whole area of intellectual property can become.
Customers_ anxieties were based on the possible misuse of their material and the possibility that their work might appear in areas over which they had no control. This presupposes that the material to which they owned the copyright was of value in the first place. Ciaran Fenton is commercial director of Digital Octopus, the digital arm of Octopus Publishing, which is working on frameworks through which the company can make money through electronic publishing.
_There_s no point in everybody being silly about it, [a writer_s content] is only valuable if someone else wants it,_ he says. _Everybody feels their rights must ultimately have value but you can_t be too precious._ Digital Octopus_s answer will involve working closely with its paper- based sister company and building on existing relationships with writers.
ISPs don_t have that luxury. Rhian Ball, European marketing director at business ISP Concentric Networks, suggests the problem facing ISPs is whether they are carriers like telephone companies or publishers. If they are publishers they need to take some responsibility for, and a stake in, the content that appears on their servers.
Most ISPs want to be carriers without the responsibility, but Ball admits there are dangers if a member puts something illegal on a site. _If you leave it up you might be liable; if you take it down you might be in breach of contract with your customer._
The outcome of the court actions being taken by photographers will be fascinating. If the library can establish that copyright laws change when an image is digitised, even if it_s recognisable as someone else_s work, the ramifications for anyone fearing their work might be retyped or scanned into an electronic system will be far-reaching.
ENDS