Spain Branch of Watchtower Society must pay a compensation of 60.000€ (sixty thousand) to Spanish photographer's relatives Agustín Centelles, by publishing without license a photograhp in The Watchtower, January 15, 1994 page 3.
Spain Branch of Watchtower Society must pay 60.000
by JHK 10 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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JHK
Excuse me, January 15
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dissed
Another sign of the JW's being persecuted, no? As he says sarcastically.
The WT goes after people over copyrights, and now it is turned against them. Why am I not sorry to hear this?
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SixofNine
Damn! I'm not crying for the Watchtower in the least, but even as a photographer I find that harsh. I don't think the amount would be anywhere near as high in the US.
That said, the Spanish court probably went by a formula, and WT vaunted huge circulation like bit them in the arse on this one.
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SirNose586
Clickable link.
I really wonder how this one slipped through the cracks...it's a publishing corporation run by lawyers. How could they be so careless as to let this happen?
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TheOldHippie
The article says it is the huge circulation that triggered the size of the amount, that it was distributed in millions of magazines in a large amount of languages. The copyright runs out 2011, it also says.
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Titus
But in the magazine is credit:
[Picture Credit Line on page 3]
Instituto Municipal de Historia, BarcelonaSo, where is the problem? I don't speak Spanish...
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recovering
You still must have the copyright owners permission to use the image comercially. This is true even if the source is sited.
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fokyc
Google translation, could do with some tidying up!
Flashes claim Jehovah's Witnesses 60,000 euros
Also accused of 'piracy' to Espasa and Franco FoundationThe children of the photographer just starting Agustí Centelles battery claims for "piracy" of photos of his father, who died in 1985. The former have been Jehovah's Witnesses by the publication in 1994 in the Watchtower magazine of one of the iconic images of the Civil War: the grimace of terror of a woman against her husband's body after a bombardment in Lleida in 1937. The following, as advertised brothers Sergio and Octavi Centelles, will the Foundation Francisco Franco, Espasa Calpe Susaeta editions.
"The magazine, with the photograph, reproduced in millions of copies and 115 languages. And at that time the rights to broadcast a picture like that, only at national level, would have assumed about 500,000 pesetas," they say in the legal department of the Archives Centelles. Jehovah's Witnesses had acquired a copy of the photograph in the photocopying service of the former Municipal Institute of History of Barcelona for 6,000 pesetas. Flashes discovered alerted by a former member of the religious organization. Jurgen Weyand, representative of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who purchased the copy says "good faith" and trust that their lawyers can agree.
Sergi Centelles removal order ensures that the purchase "specified that the image was sold but never broadcast rights. And he complains of treatment of the photo: "They cut a slice, and no photographer wants to cut off your photo. The author of a work has rights." Flashes claiming 60,000 Euros for the publishing rights to the image only at national level. They have contacted a U.S. law firm to sue the editor of U.S. magazine, which also printed thousands of copies.
"We will also seek Espasa Calpe, which has reproduced photographs of my father not to quote him for 50 years in the Fundación Francisco Franco and Susaeta editions. My father's work is being misused for profit companies or entities. We want to decide where will they appear and for what purposes. The exploitation rights remain valid until the end of 2011, "concludes Sergi Centelles.
fokyc
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moshe
Well, If I was a copyright lawyer, I would be seeing big $$. I have a feeling the WT regularly underpaid or didn't even pay the copyright image owners for their photos. It is certainly cheap to buy a picture for a business magazine, but the costs go up dramatically for a publication that has a circulation in the millions. Just suppose that each month the WT failed to pay the full amount for one image, can you imagine what this will cost them, if everybody starts suing them?