CBS roll over for Morel.
Written by David WhiteGood work. Another one sees sense. Just that feisty AFP and the behemoth itself to battle now.
At the duck we are ignoring AFP’s ridiculous and hypocritical posturing. More power to your elbow Dan, more power.
Discussion (7 Comments)
http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/1934603/-prevail-afp-morel
I love the fact that AFP legal team are not relying on any sense of legal righteousness or correctness but “A 12(b)(6) motion is usually used, in the US legal system, to throw out a case with insufficient legal theories underlying its cause.”
In other words, they are going fight for any small chance of using legal technicalities so their legal team can bill them for it.
Who are advising these people at AFP? Bet someone inside the legal team is saying to the people in AFP “We can win this for you.. you cannot settle… you did nothing wrong”.
Please AFP, sack your legal team ill advising you and show you are on the side of the industry who need support, not exploitation. They are going to cost you financially and accelerate the brand destruction already taking place. They don’t care about your reputation, only billable hours.
Your business exists on reputation so sack them and settle.
Start the process of bringing people onside now and come back to the photography family… better still, invest in shooters and producers and people will forgive you.
Use this as a catalyst for internal change and people will respect you.
Iamnot … they are trying to settle … they are desperate to settle … its just a question of how much, and Morel’s agenda (and finances).
It’s personal to him. AFP and people like Leroy have attempted to damage his reputation. He may be motivated to keep this going a little longer.
Seems like a pay day is coming soon for Morel!
How do you know AFP are trying to seriously settle? I would expect a silly amount to go first just to try and see if the damage can be limited…. but that is never serious.
Of course they are going to want to pay as little as possible. AFP want to settle, but does Morel.
And is Leroy going to apologise to him?
Another important aspect of the case, though, is Getty Images’ role in all of this. Previously, they argued that the images had been provided by Agence France Presse and that they couldn’t comment on the case. But now, with the judge’s order, Getty has found itself under the spotlight. Judge Pauley wrote: “Morel’s allegations that AFP and Getty knew the images were his, disregarded his rights, and licensed his images to third parties are sufficient to plead knowledge and inducement of infringement.” Basically, he says that Getty Images knew it was doing something wrong and kept doing it anyway. Why?
Incompetence? Arrogance? Or business strategy. Kill the value of the photograph, but retain the value of having someone to source them.
I think neither: Just plain old risk reward.
The corporates are also better resourced and therefore better organised. AFP and Getty do not really have a public client base so their brand is immune from damage. All they need to do is give their clients what they want as they are a business to business provider so it must be that the risk reward is skewed to incentivise actions like this.
Good old fashioned incentive driven behavioural economics.
I see it as laziness from a lack of competition but I think that they will be quietly changing their policies as this is not good for any of the big agencies even on a cost basis.
Thanks to the BJP, duckrabbit and the web, they are having trouble doing the same with the current levels of transparency social networks are providing for us all!