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Re: Ownership of Files



In the case of photography, this is confusing!  A curious example would be what's going on right now at the community college where I work.  We had a staff photographer who was employed here for about seventeen years.  His position was part of a RIF a few years back.  Ever since his position was eliminated, he has been haggling (legally) over the copyright of every photo he took during his tenure here.  YIKES!  That's a heckofalotta pics!  At first, the college's position was more or less that they just wanted him to go away, so they wanted to just let him have everything (photos, negs, etc.)  As you can imagine, that was quite disturbing to me (as the Archivist here), the photo collection is the most used part of our archives.  I had some conversations with some of the administrators here and that seemed to squelch the "giveaway" concept.

Here is what is baffling here:  the guy was full-time, on the payroll.  All of his equipment was college-owned, all of his supplies were college provided.  And, it's uncertain exactly what images he took himself, as for quite some time he had a part-time photo assistant provided by the college.  He never "marked" the photos in any way (crediting himself).  After consulting the college attorney, the admin. felt they had a strong position.  But, alas, because of the "ins and outs" of copyright (?) the (ex) photographer is still pursuing his legal case against the college.  I have provided what meager assistance I could to strengthen the college's position, spoken with the attorney and handed over policies and documentation, etc.

BOTTOM LINE:  this case is still pending after about 4 ½ years!

As you can imagine, the (ex) photographer is being driven by resentment and bitterness.  I think he feels that regardless of the outcome, he will have satisfaction in creating difficulty for the college.  The school has not used any of his images in any publications since this whole thing started, and of course by now his images would not be considered "fresh" anymore.

Just prior to all this happening, I was "tipped" off by some staff members that several boxes of photos and negs. were going to be pitched, so I grabbed my trusty handtruck and quickly retrieved them for the archives.

That's my story.

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