Xposure 2017 focuses on copyright issues
Need for laws on misuse of images on social media among topics discussed
Apanel of international experts yesterday discussed the burning issue of copyright in photography at Xposure 2017, the international photography festival organised by Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB).
The session moderated by Timothy Allen was graced by Mark Hill, Bjoern Lauren, Vineet Vohra, Beno Saradzic and Kelli Grant. The discussion spanned topics from copyright issues that the photographers faced in the UAE to the relevance of copyright laws in terms of social media.
Allen, a celebrated photographer, said, “Around 20 years back, the only place where a photograph got published was a printed book or a magazine. And for that work, you were paid; hence copyright was part of the business model. Today, things have changed, and the largest platform for display of photography is social media and certainly the internet, for the simple reason that it makes you reach the maximum people. I think that copyright in social media is a very important topic.”
Lauren, a commercial photographer based in Dubai, said, “I was shooting for a real estate developer, and was being supervised by a government official. The shoot was to show the property in the context of the general skyline of the city, but I was not able to do it because I did not have specific permissions to include iconic buildings of the city, like Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab. It is therefore important if you are shooting in the UAE to be careful about the permissions in advance.”
Hill said different countries have different laws and one has to abide by them.
Vohra, a street photographer
based in India, and Saradzic, a Dubai-based commercial photographer, also shared their concerns on social media usage of the images, the need to watermark and ways of keeping a check on unauthorised use of pictures on internet.