wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Forwarded message from Globorama
Michael 2008-May-28 22:35:00
Hello fellow wwp-panographers,
I apologizse for joining so late into this discussion and I'm afraid
there might be some ZKM postings which I didn't read carefully enough.
Let me begin with this clip from the main page of the WWP:
"All images will be copyright by the individual photographers. Use in
any way other than viewing on this web site is prohibited unless
permission is obtained from the relevant photographer. The overall
site is copyright by the Regents of the University of California."
It should be clear to ANYBODY, may it be a layman in copyright issues,
pros from media agencies or employees at university departments that
what had happened was illegal. Asking the WWP organisers for their ok
to use the panoramas is in vain, since it is the individual
photographers, which hold the copyright. Yet one could ask the
organisers for assistance to promote this project and to contact the
individual photogaphers. This was not done. Anyhow, most - if not any
- of the photographers can be reached by the displayed contact info in
connection with the panorama contributions. The ZKM people had done a
certain effort to keep the photographers name related to the panorama.
Thank you for that. But little more had been needed to get the
photographers consent to use the images. This was not done. Now we
receive a statement which only reveals half of the story. Having
noticed this trouble (obviously months ago already), a straightforward
information to all of the contributers would have helped a lot to
regain confidence into this project and the people behind. This was
not done. The next reasonable step to do - as stated by others already
- is to give us a full list of photographers which you have taken the
panoramas from. From what I could see in the video, zooming in into
the Paris region or Japan revealed LOTS of spots and I have to assume
that this is true for Berlin as well. At least 2 of my own
contributions had been indoor shootings with permission to use the
panoramas for the WWP project only. Showing them in public - even for
a limited time - could end up in court: for me, not the ZKM. So to get
all this fixed I would say it would be really nice:
if the ZKM would be so kind to tell us all about the periods of past,
present and future use and the means of usage,
if the ZKM was willing to prove which photograpers and panoramas are
involved
if the ZKM could offer some kind of compensation for this past illegal
use and
if the ZKM would agree into regular terms of use for a possible legal
future integration into this project.
I think it is clearly the ZKM turn to take action. If we the
photographers have to act, I would guess this will be desastrous for
the ZKM (not saying that the photographers would benefit from that).
The WWP is a non profit making project and I guess nobody contributing
to it does this with a commercial intention. On the other hand I'm
pretty sure, nobody contributing to it does want his or her work to be
hijacked for some unknown purpose, nor does anybody wants to be taken
for a ride with statements which reveal only a part of the truth.
Yours,
Michael
--- In #removed#, "Markus Altendorff" <panoramas_de@...> wrote:
>
> Due to the back-and-forth of, and some delay in the WWP registration
process, the
> message from Globorama was sent to the admins, with a request to
forward it to the list.
> To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Lintermann should by now be able to
send/receive from
> the list, too.
>
> Below is the forwarded original message.
>
> Careful with the reply button. That's my mail address up there in
the header ;)
>
> -Markus
>
> From: Bernd Lintermann <image2@...>
> To: #removed#
> Sent: May 28, 2008, 12:46:36 Uhr
> Subject: Globorama Statement
>
>
> Dear Members of the World Wide Panorama Project,
>
> first of all I want to thank you for your feedback. There is a lot
of feedback, positive and
> negative, with which we are trying to deal with right now. I
apologize for delays in
> answering, but I want to reassure you that we deal with individual
replies in due course. In
> particular, I want to apologize for the discord caused in the WWP
and want to address to
> you the following lines in order to explain the situation of ZKM and
the thoughts that we
> had when organizing the event in Stuttgart.
>
> In Stuttgart, the Globorama Project in its current version was shown
to the public from
> May 17 to May 25. On May 25, 2008, the event was terminated and, for
the time being,
> there is no access to the Globorama-Project.
>
> Prior to the Stuttgart event, it appeared to us as that the most
effective possibility to
> inform WWP-members about our idea to include WWP-panoramas in the
Globorama
> Project was to contact the initiators and organizers of WWP with our
request and
> foremostly the question if they might be so kind as to let us know
the best way how to
> reach the community in order to get the permissions to include the
panoramas. This
> happened on May 8, 2008.
>
> Not receiving any reply whatsoever, we were pressed for time and had
to decide on what to
> do.
>
> The purpose of the event in Stuttgart was to attract young people to
technical education
> and professions. Visitors had to pay no admission fee, and the
exhibitors - educational
> institutions such as Universities - were receiving no money for
their presentations. It was
> a purely non-commercial and educational event.
>
> Therefore, and since the manner of access to the images is close to
the way it is handled
> in Google Earth, which shows a preview of the panorama within the
application itself, we
> assumed, that displaying images with crediting the authors of the
panoramas would be
> acceptable for you. Unfortunately, as can be seen by your comments,
this assumption was
> wrong and some of you felt that their rights were abused and they
did not want to
> contribute to the Globorama project under the given circumstances.
>
> We also did not want to offend anybody when permission was assumed
without feedback.
> Meanwhile, a new document was sent to the individual e-mail
addresses in which this
> "silent consent" is erased.
>
> Any future presentation of panoramic images in Globorama will only
happen with the
> explicit permissions of the photographer/ panographer. In Globorama,
the panoramic
> images are regarded as personal/ individual views on different
locations all over the
> globe. As a cultural/ educational institution, we are in no manner
whatsoever interested in
> making money with it or taking over any of the images' authorship.
>
>
> We want to apologize for the discord caused.
>
>
> With best regards,
>
> - Bernd Lintermann
>