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    <title>Needlessly abject</title>
    <link>http://peeved.org/blog/copyfight/</link>
    <description>I am not a teenager. I play one on the Internet.</description>
    <language>en</language>
    <copyright>Public Domain - All rights under copyright waived.</copyright>
    <lastBuildDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:44:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
    <item>
      <title>Amusing Ken Rockwell Quotation</title>
      <link>http://peeved.org/blog/copyfight/20070808-001.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[<p>
A friend of mine sent me a link to <a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com" rel="tag">Ken Rockwell's site</a>
a few months ago when I was beginning to shop around for digital SLR camera.
In the last couple days, I finally got around to taking a look at Ken's
site. 
</p>

<p>
Ken is clearly very experienced, talented, and opinionated. He's great at
what he does, from everything I've looked at. For that, he's entitled to be
opinionated, to me. Do good work and your opinions about that work become
important.
</p>

<p>
Having said that, I found this bit on Ken's <a rel="tag" href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm">Why Your Camera Does Not Matter</a>
page that was rather irksome. Quoth Ken:
</p>

<div class="entryquote"> 
Why is it that photographers with ... the exact GPS coordinates of Jack's or
Ansel's photo locations ... hike out there with the image in hand to ensure
an exact copy (illegal by US copyright laws and common decency) ...
</div>

<p>
*sigh*
</p>

<p>
If you're not copying Ansel or Jack's photos, you're not infringing on their
copyright. It may be repugnant, from a 'common decency' perspective, for
someone to make photos that are inspired by, or even emulating, the style of
another photographer, but it's not copyright infringement unless the
original work is copied. The copyrighted work <em>isn't the scene being
depicted</em>-- it's the photographic image.
</p>

<p>
Ken's opinion confuses me. He seems to exude a very "go out there and take
some pictures" attitude throughout most of his site, but then he goes off
and says things like the above. All art is derivative, and all artists get
their inspiration from somewhere. It may be amateurish, even gauche, to draw
so directly from the body of work of another photographer, but it's hardly
copyright infringement.
</p>]]></description>
      <author>T.A. Adjuster &lt;blog@peeved.org&gt;</author>
      <category>/copyfight</category>
      <pubDate>Sat, 08 Sep 2007 21:24:00 GMT</pubDate>
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