wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Globorama - some explanation from Don
G. Donald Bain 2008-May-22 20:51:00
I am sorry for the confusion around this issue. Let me try to explain
the chain of events.
Gabi Haindl (one of our long-time WWP participants, resident in
Germany) alerted us to this issue back on April 17. She went to
Karlsruhe and saw images from the WWP being used in the Globorama.
Apparently this had occurred before, in fall of 2008. She then talked
to Mr Bernd Lintermann, Head of the ZKM Institute for Visual Media,
who confirmed that no permission had been sought before using the WWP
panoramas.
Many thanks to Gabi for this! Unfortunately, we (the WWP organizers)
didn't follow through very well. Landis and Markus and I discussed
it, but no action was taken at that time.
The next thing, if I have the chronology correct, was that on May 8
Mr. Lintermann sent an e-mail to the organizers, explaining about the
Globorama project. He also asked us to provide him with a mailing list
of all the members of the WWP so that he could contact you directly
for permission. He included a proposed letter, three pages in pdf
format, and a form to be filled out, in Word format.
The WWP policy on copyright is stated very clearly on the site,
unchanged from the very first event. Mr Lintermann's e-mail, letter,
and form were very reasonable, and the right way to deal with it -
EXCEPT that it should have been done before their first use.
Now, it would seem to be a clear violation of everyone's copyright to
assume that they could use your material in the first place. I am
familiar with the "flexible" way that copyright is treated by many in
academia (I am constantly being asked to install "free" copies of
commercial software for professors). On the other hand, there is such
a thing as "fair use", where materials can be used in reviews and as
examples without permission. Just where the line should be drawn
between fair use and copyright violation could be argued endlessly.
There was also the question of whether they were actually hijacking
our images by putting them on their server, or just showing the WWP
site direct from the web. The former would be illegal, the latter not.
Next was the request to give them everyone's e-mail address. One of
the promises made in setting up the WWP was to protect your email
addresses. Any mass communication should be done through this list, to
which members can subscribe, or read digests, or archives, or opt out
of.
This was starting to get complex and we needed time to consider it.
Unfortunately, free time is something that Landis and I have had very
little of lately. We discussed it again but nothing was done.
The next event was May 21, when many of us received an e-mail from
Petra Kaiser, on behalf of the ZKM Center (presenters of the
Globorama). The full text of this message is quoted below, for those
who did not receive it. Since it did not come through #removed#,
and we certainly did not give out an e-mail list, they must have read
the e-mail addresses from the web site and typed them in (they are not
machine-readable).
A letter very similar to the sample that I had been sent earlier was
attached, in pdf format. It included the assurance that this was a non-
profit educational use, and that copyright notice, title, and name of
photographer would be included with each image displayed. The form, in
Word format, was also attached, to be used either to grant them
permission or to deny them use of your images.
So far so good - BUT - in numbered paragraph 5 they asserted "Please
be informed that we assume your consent, if we do not receive any
comment from your side." This of course is nonsense and illegal. The
WWP is "published" in the US and the law is clear - copyright is
implicitly granted to the artist when the work is created. Since these
works have been created all over the world, other national copyright
laws and international conventions may also apply.
Rest assured that the organizers of the WWP will defend your
copyrights, and will not give out your e-mail addresses.
Displays of VR media such as the Globorama may be a useful way to
publicize our efforts and further distribute our art. I encourage them
in doing this. But we must insist that certain standards be met. (1)
that the creators of the content (all of us) are consulted before the
content is used, (2) that we are fully informed of how it will be
used, (3) that copyright is strictly observed with permission
explicitly obtained from each individual, and (4) that the Berne
Convention on Moral Rights (which simply means that your name has to
be kept linked to your work) is observed.
There has been some discussion of this on the list, which is good.
Please continue to comment and express your opinions. Unfortunately, I
will only be an intermittent participant in the discussion, as I am
about to leave for a twelve day trip in the deserts of Arizona and
Utah, where I will have limited internet access. Landis is also out of
town.
A personal announcement will follow.
Don
====================
> Dear Madam/ Sir,
> at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, <http://www.zkm.de
> > a public cultural institution that focuses on contemporary and
> especially on media art, an artistic research project has been
> conducted that explores new forms of visualizing satellite image data.
>
> The project entitled ?Globorama? is an installation shown in a
> cylindrical projection screen of 8m in diameter and 2.8m in height.
>
> The goal was to enable the users to travel the entire globe by means
> of a laser pointer. To experience not only a bird?s eye view of the
> globe respectively to see different locations from different
> heights, but to be able to explore the chosen location, the
> researchers and artists developed a prototype of the installation
> that makes it possible to include panoramic images from the web.
>
> In this context, the developers would like to take the liberty to
> integrate into this prototype version also pictures from the Word
> Wide Panorama Project to explore the feasibility of the application
> developed. Having shown the work as a ?prototype-in-progress? at the
> ZKM, we would now like to present the project as part of different
> international, non-commercial exhibitions.
>
> We have noticed that copyright of the images vests with the
> respective author, and we had contacted the organizers of the World
> Wide Panorama Project with the request to please be so kind as to
> distribute our request for the permission to use the images in the
> installation via the project?s mailing list. Unfortunately, we
> haven?t received any response yet, and so we would now like to
> contact you directly. We would like to apologize that this happens
> on such short notice.
>
> Further information on the installation and the context of use for
> which we would kindly request your permission can be found in the
> attached documents.
>
> We?d be more than happy to answer any further questions you might
> have with regard to the project, and are looking forward to hearing
> from you.
>
>
> With kind regards and thank you very much for your cooperation,
>
> Bernd Lintermann
>
> Head of the ZKM | Institute for Visual Media