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10/06/2010
NOM forced to pull Lynch ad; we're forced to look up spelling of 'schadenfreude'
If one goes to the old version of the "John Lynch: He's Changed" ad that the National Organization For Marriage/Cornerstone Policy Research recently posted online, he or she will see this takedown notice:
That's because in that ad knocking New Hampshire's governor, NOM/CPR took it upon themselves to lift a Creative Commons licensed photo taken by local photographer Marc Nozell, without first obtaining Mr. Nozell's permission (which he clearly requests on his Flickr site). The photog says of the unsolicited usage:
I’m an amateur photographer in New Hampshire and have taken a number of photos of various state and national politicians, some of which I license under a Creative Commons (CC) license. The CC license is a simple way to allow other people to use my work at no fee in exchange for following certain conditions.
The photo in question of Governor John Lynch (http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/2616348625/) I’ve licensed under a “Attribution Creative Commons” license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/).
That license requires:
“Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests thatthey endorse you or your use of the work).”
The ‘you’ in the above paragraph refers to the person using the work, in this case NOM. The ‘they’ is refering to the copyright holder, in this case me.
The National Organization for Marriage (http://www.nationformarriage.org/) & Cornerstone Action (http://www.cpraction.org/) has produced a TV Ad that is uses my photo but does notgive me proper attribution and therefore is in violation of the license agreement.
The video can be found on Youtube “He’s Changed” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZajaoReo8Xg) where my photo of John Lynch appears 7 seconds into the video. A screen capture can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/5054289922/
I demand Cornerstone Action and National Organization for Marriage cease and desist all use of the “He’s Changed” video on the internet, cable and broadcast TV and other distribution methods.
Additionally, this is directly affecting my right to sell non-exclusive use of my work. Yesterday morning, prior to learning of NOM’s copyright violation, I sold a non-exclusive license for that very same photo to a Washington DC-based production house. It is unclear if that deal is now in jeopardy since it is to be used in a
pro-Lynch work.
Sincerely,
Marc Nozell
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) & Cornerstone Action are violating my copyright [Marc Nozell Blog]
So now NOM has recut the ad with a new photo, invalidating whatever web links they might have received on the day they launched the ad. Plus there are the costs of getting a new version to stations, the need to explain the confusion, etc, etc. All in all: Another NOM FAIL.
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