My Own Argument and Opinions

The laws we have concerning copyrights and overall intellectual property are meant to protect our work and us. “Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trade mark or service mark on competing or related goods and services.”(Patent, Copyright and Trademark. Page 379) If we don’t have these types of laws in place then people would just rip off what someone else produces and claim it as their own which is not okay. As a photographer I am glad we have these types of laws to protect my work and others. Take for instances if I was to shoot a series of photos with my info watermarked on the photos along with all the proper metadata stating who took the the photo, location, contact info, copyright symbol and the year and someone came along and stripped everything off the photos and then put their info on them and then I found out about it I could take legal actions against them. Since “Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of trademark or service mark on competing or related services”(Patent, Copyright and Trademark. Page 446) They stole my work and committed copyright infringement. I could’ve had a trademarked look in those photos even; I could get them for that as well.

Week 10 EOC: Lawyer Jokes

Q: Why did God invent lawyers?
A: So that real estate agents would have someone to look down on.

Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and a bucket of manure?
A: The bucket.

http://www.iciclesoftware.com/LawJokes/IcicleLawJokes.html

Q: What's wrong with lawyer jokes?
A: Lawyers don't think they're funny and other people don't think they're jokes.

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Lawyer.htm

Two attorneys were walking out of a bar and a beautiful young lady walks by. One attorney turns to his associate and comments "Boy, I would like to screw her! The other attorney thinks for a second and said "Out of what"?

http://www.101funjokes.com/lawyer_jokes.htm

When a person assists a criminal in breaking the law before the criminal gets arrested, we call him an accomplice. When a person assists a criminal in breaking the law after the criminal gets arrested, we call him a defense lawyer.

Good News: A busload of lawyers ran off a cliff. The bus was destroyed and there were no survivors. Bad News: There were three empty seats

Question: What do lawyers use for birth control?
Answer: Their personalities.

http://www.stromer.com/jokes/185jokes.html

Week 9 EOC: Letters of Permission

With any of form of created property, it's important to get permission to use it for anything. For photography it's important to have releases. From general, model (minor and adult), and property. You never know when it may be needed to back yourself up. For my four I found a general shortened version of a normal model release that could be used to for something quick where details aren't needed as much as other times. Then next is the ever important specification between minor and adult. With children more detailed terms have to be used to protect the minor and of course to cover the photographer. Also a parent or guardian will have to sign for the minor due to them being underage. This makes sure they can't just go signing off on themselves if they are in fact even old enough to do that. Next comes an adult model release. Here we have the same it's just outlined for an adult there may be slight variances depending how you want to write it up. Then lastly there is a property release form which is what it sounds like, meaning it's for buildings. The property photos can be used how the photographer wants to use of course depending on the wording on the document.

All these forms grant permission to the photographer to use the pictures taken how they want. Some forms can have use agreements while others you can sign away any and all rights to the photographs of yourself or whatever was photographed. Reading the documents is important so you know what will happen after the shoot is over. You don't want to go blindly agreeing to something you may not like...

Week 8 EOC: Bratz vs. Matell

What a foolish battle between two brands. Sure they both are dolls that can be dressed up, but they are two completely different types of dolls. Bratz are a little edgy maybe even slightly trashy. Barbies are a little more reserved not quite as scandalous. However Mattel things the design was stolen due to the fact that the creator of Bratz was working at Mattel at the time he came up with Bratz. Now that doesn't mean that the design was stolen or anything but Mattel seems to believe that they are owed something and wanting the destruction of them. The truth of it is that Mattel didn't want them succeeding from their company and taking away any and all ideas in which were used to create the new dolls, Bratz. They took them to court to battle it out. It's been an ongoing affair. "Mattel won the rights to the $1 billion-plus Bratz franchise earlier this year in a lawsuit against MGA and former Mattel Barbie designer Carter Bryant, who invented the Bratz concept while under contract to Mattel."(
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/12/04/us-mattel-bratz-idUSTRE4B311220081204) Then back in 2008 a federal jude ruled for MGA (Bratz) to stop selling their dolls, and stopped them from using the name, and also that hundred's of Bratz products infringed upon on copyrights owned by Mattel. Now fast foreword years later and they're still battling it out in court. Even MGA gets awarded money at one point. It's just a back and forth deal that may never end...

Week 8 BOC: Progress On Final Project

I'm at the point of where I need to make my questions. I wanted to form my questions before I actually went ahead and contacted a lawyer, so that way I would be prepared and not stumbling over things not knowing what to say. However, I do have a list and on that list there is one that I want to try out first because he's an intellectual property lawyer and also he's a photographer so what better person to use than someone similar to me. Then there are others that look really promising as well. My question will be to the point and well delivered so they do not get confuse with something else and will be easy to answer. I don't want to take too much of the lawyers time. They do get costly. This will be free work for them though.

As far as the rest of the class, I am all caught up. My blog is up to date as well as my daily tweets.

Week 7 EOC: Lawyers

1. Kenehan & Lambertsen Limited 702-997-1732

2. Weide & Miller, Ltd. 888-336-9296

3. Kolesar & Leatham 702-997-8358

4. Mary F. Chapman 702-800-3362

5. Marquis Aurbach Coffing 702-979-2405

6. Rosenfeld & Bauman 702-583-6926

7. Borghese Legal 702-382-0200

8. Vincent Kostiw (rockstarlaw) 702-508-8510

9. Greenberg Traurig 702-938-6888

10. Jennifer Craft 702-796-5555

Week 6 EOC: Illicit Trade

From drugs to handbags, illicit trade is a huge epidemic. It takes place in our own backyards, but is much more common in places like China. The conditions for all illegal trade are based upon the same thing, someone wants something for cheap and they don't care how they get it. This is quite a problem because in the process someone is going to get hurt along the way. It could be a cheap product or just the nature of the trade. It's one shrouded with secrets and plenty of money to go around. Dirty money that is. That money needs to get cleaned so people establish business and those sometimes are construction companies that spend the money to buy the supplies, contractors and whatever else they need. Then they sell the finished housing structure and get "clean" money. Unfortunately shortcuts are taken and buildings are not up to code and really no one should live in them. All they care about is the bottom line, and getting their money... Illicit trade starts out small with just a few knock off products here and there but it's those that set the big picture of it all.