Higbee, PicRights and AFP for photo inside a PDF

[kingkendall]

Technically billions of people are guilty are infringement when a copyrighted image is shared on social media.  That's the problem with an antiquated law in the internet age.  Is there an incentive to update the law? 

I don't see none?  The copyright troll makes money by sending demand letters for outrageous sums to snatch up the low hanging fruit.  The court makes $400 dollars a pop for suits that are actually filed.  Lawyers for plaintiff and defendants make money for stretching out a mickey mouse claim that that eventually will end in a settlement one way or another.  So where is the incentive to fix it all? 

Meanwhile the little guy is getting hurt in a system that set up to screw him coughed in the language of legality.  He's the one that's called a thief by a bigger thief who has the nerve to act like he has the moral high ground when he's committing extortion?   

       

[DavidVGoliath]

Technically billions of people are guilty are infringement when a copyrighted image is shared on social media.

Nope. If the photograph is shared using the built-in tools of a service like Twitter or Facebook, then as long as the image in question is either the uploader's own work - of they have permission from teh creator to upload it to social media - then there's no infringement.

[quote author=kingkendall link=topic=5336.msg23282#msg23282 date=1538673204The copyright troll makes money by sending demand letters for outrageous sums to snatch up the low hanging fruit.  The court makes $400 dollars a pop for suits that are actually filed.  Lawyers for plaintiff and defendants make money for stretching out a mickey mouse claim that that eventually will end in a settlement one way or another.  So where is the incentive to fix it all?[/quote] 

Look at what has been going on in the EU, where I live: new laws were voted on last month which mandate that information services themselves would need to pay a portion of their revenues to rightsholders so that copyright content can be shared on their networks. The how of this system will be meted out over the next two years, but the intended end result is that social media users - in Europe at least - should be able to post most rightsholder content without repercussions to themselves, because the services will foot the bill.

If you're at all familiar with the concept of music recording mechanical royalties vis-a-vis radio stations then you'll have a grasp on the intent, since both the above, and my foregoing statement, are an oversimplification of the framework for the sake of brevity.

You can bet the farm that other nations are closely following the new EU legislation as a possible framework for updating their own copyright laws.

Meanwhile the little guy is getting hurt in a system that set up to screw him coughed in the language of legality.  He's the one that's called a thief by a bigger thief who has the nerve to act like he has the moral high ground when he's committing extortion?

Again, nope: making use of someone else's property, without their consent, is the issue. Legislation sets out possible avenues of restitution and, to avoid burdening the courts with every single claim, they encourage parties to attempt to resolve their differences before taking the more formal and serious step of petitioning the courts.

If you want to call that extortion, then your argument is based on semantics and personal opinion instead of definitions under law.

[UnfairlyTargeted]

Meanwhile the little guy is getting hurt in a system that set up to screw him coughed in the language of legality.  He's the one that's called a thief by a bigger thief who has the nerve to act like he has the moral high ground when he's committing extortion?

Amen to that.  You guys seriously need to get with the real world and stop living in the fantasy world of antique law and overinflated picture values from 40 years ago.  Reforming the laws can't come soon enough.

[Matthew Chan]

"Crime" is a strong word that I would not use unless it is used in a hyperbolic sense. No one is being prosecuted by any government entity.  Most of the small time infringements we discuss here can never be escalated to any truly criminal matter.  A speeding ticket is more of a "crime" than the infringements we discuss because the police get involved in speeding tickets. If you don't pay it, the city, county, or state doesn't like it very much for ignoring the ticket.

That said, I truly believe that most people are unaware that they are even committing a crime.

[clist]

You're right.



Go on and replace "committing a crime" with "doing something wrong".