Tomorrow (26th March 2019) MEPs will vote on a controversial EU directive to copyright work used on the web. It sets terms and conditions for others to reuse content (posted by people like us) commercially. The battle has been between the tech giants, whose business model is all about reusing other’s intellectual property without license or renumeration, and us ‘the
Alamy – a follow-up
The UK Press Gazette quoted The BPPA’s open letter to Alamy’s CEO in their piece about his video signalling his intention to reduce the photographers percentage of royalties to 40%. This morning the UKPG asked us to provide a response to James West’s latest video where he offers to keep the 50% split for exclusive content. We provided the following
Photography is not harassment
This is an open letter to the ITV management who have promoted their programme “Tonight: Harassment Uncovered” which, in places, confuses photography with sexual harassment. The programme aired at 7.30pm on the 23rd of February 2017 Dear ITV Professional photographers are against any and all harassment of people going about their private and lawful business. To suggest or imply anything
And Then The Prime Minister Hit Me – the new book from Brian Harris.
Veteran Fleet Street photographer and founder member of The BPPA Brian Harris has just published his long-awaited book “…and then the Prime Minister hit me”. You can follow the story of how the book came into being on Brian’s blog. When Brian Harris decided as a boy to give up his dream of being a newspaper cartoonist and instead
Sir Harold Evans – interview
The book Pictures on a Page by Sir Harold Evans is widely considered the definitive text on photojournalism, layout and picture editing. Voted the all-time greatest British newspaper editor by British journalists in 2001, Evans made his name at the Northern Echo and at the Sunday Times, which he was editing when he wrote Pictures on a Page in 1978.
Election 2015 – Never Mind The Deja Vu
Back in 2005 The BPPA put together a project called “Never Mind The Ballots” which was a response to the “most stage managed, spin driven and least visually interesting elections in modern times”. Press photographers faced a month of ten minute photocalls and long frustrating waits whilst trying to find interesting and journalistically significant images. Ten years later the sense of
Our Draft Code of Conduct
Immediately after the Leveson Inquiry we started to think about how a code of conduct could be drafted for The BPPA that would help prospective members and the British public understand what our profession is all about. We looked at similar documents from all over the world and we looked at the various codes of conduct and practice that
New from the UKPCA – Passport and Chips
All change at the UKPCA – the UK Press Card Authority, where the BPPA is one of the card issuing gatekeepers. At today’s meeting they voted nemo contra for two fundamental reforms. The meeting faced two problems. First, Custom Card, who administer the card on behalf of the gatekeepers, had detected two duplicate applications for the card from one individual
Mentoring young photographers
It goes without saying that the business is now unrecognisable from the one that I entered in the early 1990s. Then, the structure was relatively linear and there was a clear defining path to an editorial career. Now, every photographer has to be a brand and use social media to shout their wares and tout their abilities. It isn’t even
British Photographic Council concerns over consequences of new copyright law
This is a re-posting from the British Photographic Council’s website. The BPPA is a member of the BPC and members of The BPPA’s Board have been deeply involved in the process so far. Government adopts “friendless, unnecessary, poorly explained and fraught with risk” new copyright legislation, against united opposition from the photographic sector. In all of the publicity over the