Fashiongonerogue.com is currently on a hiatus because of a letter sent by Trunk Archive regarding copyright infringement. I think that this issue IS NOT as big a deal as people think. Joanna, the one in charge of fashiongonerogue, used an image by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin of Lily Donaldson in the logo for the site that appeared at the top of the page. Trunk Archive is one of the most influential and powerful syndication companies in the world and represents the very best fashion and commercial photographers in the industry. They would not go ahead and write this letter if nothing were wrong. In other words...they know what they are doing. They are the ones who have contacted fashiongonerogue because they represent Lamsweerde and Matadin. The problem was not with the blog itself in any way, shape or form. Blogging images as long as you give proper credit is perfectly alright (like what I do along with about a billion other people), but the real issue was the logo.
That is the real issue.
People think that commenting is a great thing and there have been a lot of comments on the site to rally support for the website against Trunk Archive. I don't think that the matter is an issue to be debated since Joanna was clearly wrong in her use of using the image on her logo to promote her site. Joanna was fined $2,000 for her blatant copyright infringement of the logo. I think that someone who wants to open up access to the fashion and commercial photography industry should have been more aware of the logo especially when her website is so popular. It wasn't just a small fan site, so many people in the industry and just fans in general went to that website as a resource.
What really gets annoying is when people comment about an issue they don't fully understand. The internet is a wonderful thing but in an era when people are used to skimming and things happening at lightning speed, people (and bloggers) really need to slow down and understand the full issue before they comment on it. Some people wanted Joanna to publish the name of the person who wrote the letter. In regards to publishing the name of the person who wrote the email, I think that would be completely unprofessional since the person writing it is representing a company and a corporate decision, it clearly couldn't have been one person alone responsible for the decision.
Please comment. What do you think about this issue?
0 comments:
Post a Comment