Here are some stunning pictures of the WTC on 9/11. The photographer snapped them while on duty as a police detective, flying in a police helicopter. He complains that some of his pictures were published without his consent, and also states that he may publish the rest in a book.
I say:
The public owns those pictures, as they were taken while you were on duty, being PAID by the public, in a helicopter paid for by tax dollars. Just what were you doing, taking pictures, when you should have been doing your JOB?
Fine, publish them. However, you should be billed for the helicopter time, the pilot's time, the fuel, your pay should be returned to the taxpayers, and you should be charged with dereliction of duty. Did anyone die that day, while you were taking 3,000 pictures for your own profit?
The federal government can not copyright photos. For example all the photos at nasa.gov taken by NASA employees are in the public domain. It would be nice if the same applied to state and local governments.
ReplyDeleteI agree. If taking pictures was part of his job, and it might have been, then the photos are actually the property of the city, not him. Since the city can't copyright them, he is free to post them, but he shouldn't profit by it.
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