Arkansas Senate Bill SB-79 assault on photographer's rights vetoed

Today, Arkansas Governor Hutchinson vetoed the Arkansas Senate Bill SB-79, “The Personal Rights Protection Act,” which the Arkansas legislature had worked hard to pass.

The bill, which passed the Arkansas legislature last week was designed to protect the privacy and rights of Arkansas citizens, but unfortunately, in that effort, it would have effectively made street photography illegal for making or viewing, even from out of state via the Internet in the state of Arkansas, unless the photographer was able to obtain a written release from each and every person recognizable in each photo, with a few exceptions.

The bill, sponsored by friends of longtime Arkansas football coach Frank Broyles' family, in a far reaching, unfair way, would have, in my opinion, unconstitutionally expanded the definition of “commercial photography,” well beyond what has been settled law in the US for decades.

National Press Photographers gravely concerned about "orphan works" - copyright proposal

The National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA) has submitted comments on the issue of orphan works and mass digitalization, with the US Copyright Office, to advise Congress on how to address current issues involving copyrights and orphan works.

The comments, written by NPPA attorneys Mickey Osterreicher and Alicia Calzada, with contributions from others at NPPA, discuss the myriad of issues currently facing visual journalists regarding their copyrighted images, and offer proposed solutions for creating a system which would treat copyright holders and users of orphaned works fairly and efficiently.

NPPA stated in its comments that it “is gravely concerned that in seeking to address the frustration of ‘good faith users’ of Orphan Works in order to cure their potential liability and ‘gridlock in the digital marketplace,’ the Copyright Office may create a far more serious problem for authors/owners of visual works.”