I'm grumpy. You don't care, oh well. If you ever plan to be a professional, you might actually care. I hate trademarks and have a severe dislike towards attitudes people develop towards them without understanding them. That's a nice way of saying I don't like people who don't understand them. Sure, I lack knowledge too, but I try not to make judgment calls on things I don't understand. That's where it bites you in the butt. I took photos of a friend who happens to be an employee of a fast food franchise. I was told not to include the trademark logo. I was fine with that since I knew I could just photoshop it out later if I needed to (the uniform had it on it, so what choice was there anyway?). Well, I had to put a gallery of all the non-outtakes and non-repeats (photos that look about the same). I wasn't going to photoshop out the logo for a gallery I was giving to a teacher since no one else was really going to see it. That's like photoshopping every possible image for a cover before sending it to the editor when only one will be used. Well, said employee decides I'm infringing on their trademark and gives them the link. Now I'm getting yelled at and in trouble for doing nothing wrong. Legally, I'm even protected by fair use. Still, it damages my image and has me steaming. On top of that, know how I knew they gave them the link? (they just said that they "found out") I emphasized repeatedly that you can't find it by searching! They eventually came clean, but it's proof that it was secure enough to not act like it's the end of the world. The manager refuses to speak with me too. I had to find their GM on Facebook. Why don't people ask someone who knows about the issue before making a big deal about it? Or, better yet, give a little warning next time? A phone call with someone yelling at you out of the blue is never quite fun. I'm already gritting my teeth at the most likely least enjoyable part of being a professional photographer. Legal issues. Anyway, I needed to vent and this is a private board with creatives on it, albeit a bit vicious. Most message boards with creatives are public... Now you may turn this topic to spam, or discuss other depressing legal things that have happened to you in the past.
So your friend gave you up?.... That kind of stuff is silly, it's like having to get permisson to take a picture of a tree on government property.
I wasn't even breaking any rules and they were threatening to sue. I believe the part where she explained that they were the final edits screwed me over. I specifically told her that if she wanted any, I'd edit them, not that they were done. Final cut means I've "edited" them down the last few, not that I've done post processing. I guess you can never assume someone understands, let alone will ask for clarification. I would guess that the courts would throw the lawsuit out the window. Suing a poor college student for turning in images that haven't had post work done to them is like someone for putting a picture of the McDonald's logo in a directory and never showing anyone except their next door neighbor. No damages done, technically not even infringement. Just people misinterpreting a situation that never should have happened.
You just took them for a college class right (showing them to your teacher)? So they're not actually being used in anything? And I also agree on that "friend" ratting you out. I suggest you gracefully remove him from your friend-circle. If he does this, who knows what else he might.
Not used for diddly squat. Just sat there on the server doing nothing. A server that not even archive.org has records of. Hence why there's no damages to sue over. The problem is that I'd be in debt up to my knees even if they lost a lawsuit. The corporate world is so blindly selfish and selectively ignorant that I hate it. "Oh, let's ruin this college student's future forever for absolutely no reason! Hoorah!" I'm working on forgiveness. She's a good friend that I don't want to lose, but I don't think she realized the consequences of this.
Obviously not. It's quite possibly the dumbest thing she could have done. I hope they don't pull through of course, but I also thing that court won't pay to much attention to a thing like this so it might just be thrown to the side then.
