Last year Dario asked the list for a few Pentax Pics from the sixties. No copyright nonsense, no legalese, no payment, promised or implied, etc., etc., yada yada yada, was discussed that I can remember. No one here complained. No one was rude or upset. No one posted to the list that I recall demanding more information. The result was that a few of us got our pics printed in a nice Pentax magazine, got a couple of photo credits, and a good time was had by all.
Maybe there's a difference between Dario, who represented a small Pentax-oriented organization and Marco, who represents a somewhat larger Pentax organization, but that, IMO, falls into the realm of "how many hairs make up a moustache." The whole thing is such crap ... the naysayers can argue all they want that it's Pentax Canada's fault for screwing things up, but I think those who felt that a different approach should have been taken, or who wanted more information, and instead of addressing the situation like a "mensch" behaved badly, ruined what might have been a good and fun thing for all involved or who wanted to be involved. Years ago I met a guy named Chuck who was a very successful real estate developer. At the time I was selling some property in Napa, California. It was a gorgeous, expensive piece of real estate with a beautiful, custom built home on it. Very expensive. We made the deal in a very unusual way: Chuck said he'd pay X amount of dollars contingent on a survey to clearly define the property lines. We didn't write a contract, we just talked about the deal in the car while driving to his hotel. I called the client, told him the offer, and there was a verbal agreement. Chuck sent me some $$, I opened escrow, and when the survey was done to his satisfaction, he closed the deal. Not everything has to be formal and overly legal. Sometimes a few people can just agree on what they want to do, and go about the business at hand like friends and people who trust one another. If you don't like the format, then don't play. Go sign documents and make a big deal about something else. It's just a couple of low-rez pics that Pentax wanted, and the photog would get a nice on-screen credit, both with his or her name and web site. Not a bad deal for the cost of an email, IMO. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Date: 2/7/2006 2:37:16 PM > Subject: Re: Pentax Wants Your Digital Pix > > "John Forbes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >I think you should also recognise that the whole thing was badly handled, > > I for one don't think it was badly handled. It was handled pretty much > as I'd expect a casual photo display to be done, presented without > promise of payment or request for copyrights, just for entertainment > value and fun. Heck, one of the reasons I had no qualms about it from > the word go was that there *wasn't* any legalese and "fine print" > involved. Anyone who didn't want to participate could have simply > ignored the whole thing. > > > -- > Mark Roberts > Photography and writing > www.robertstech.com
