Taylor Swift at the Billboard Music Awards. (Image courtesy: AFP)
New Delhi:
Taylor Swift collided head-on with Apple over music royalties and chalked up a win for all musicians to be featured on its new streaming service but not everyone is hailing her as a heroine. Music photographer Jason Sheldon has called the singer out over 'rights grab' in contracts that deal with photos and photographers.
In an open letter, Mr Sheldon posted this image of a standard contract that photographers need to sign, pointing out that it gives the publisher buying the photos rights to use them in perpetuity while having to pay for usage only once.
"You say in your letter to Apple that 'Three months is a long time to go unpaid'. But you seem happy to restrict us to being paid once, and never being able to earn from our work ever again, while granting you the rights to exploit our work for your benefit for all eternity," Mr Sheldon writes in his letter.
Mr Sheldon, who runs a British photo agency named Junction 10, asks Ms Swift, 25, 'How are you any different to Apple?' and writes: "Photographers need to earn a living as well. Like Apple, you can afford to pay for photographs so please stop forcing us to hand them over to you while you prevent us from publishing them more than once, ever. With all due respect to you too Taylor, you can do the right thing and change your photo policy. Photographers don't ask for your music for free. Please don't ask us to provide you with your marketing material for free."
In an addendum, Mr Sheldon clarifies that a contract of this sort is most often presented by a publication which hires a photographer to cover a concert and pay only if the photos are used. His edit reads: "It seems the circumstances of the contract aren't clear to some readers, who assume this is a work for hire contract presented for being hired and/or paid by Taylor Swift. This is not the case."
However, he told the BBC that he had to sign away rights to photos of a Taylor Swift concert in Birmingham to her management in 2011. The permission form that he signed granted long term rights to Ms Swift's management company while preventing Mr Sheldon from using them. "I can't use it in my portfolio, feature it on my website and even the original newspaper couldn't reuse it," Mr Sheldon told BBC.
Over the weekend, Taylor Swift wrote Apple a note on her Tumblr page calling their decision to not pay royalties during a three-month trial period of its new subscription streaming service "shocking, disappointing and completely unlike this historically progressive company." She said she would not be offering her album 1989 on the service writing, "We don't ask you for free iPhones, please don't ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation." In less than 24 hours, Apple vice-president Eddie Cue announced that they would pay full royalties to the artistes.
In an open letter, Mr Sheldon posted this image of a standard contract that photographers need to sign, pointing out that it gives the publisher buying the photos rights to use them in perpetuity while having to pay for usage only once.
"You say in your letter to Apple that 'Three months is a long time to go unpaid'. But you seem happy to restrict us to being paid once, and never being able to earn from our work ever again, while granting you the rights to exploit our work for your benefit for all eternity," Mr Sheldon writes in his letter.
Mr Sheldon, who runs a British photo agency named Junction 10, asks Ms Swift, 25, 'How are you any different to Apple?' and writes: "Photographers need to earn a living as well. Like Apple, you can afford to pay for photographs so please stop forcing us to hand them over to you while you prevent us from publishing them more than once, ever. With all due respect to you too Taylor, you can do the right thing and change your photo policy. Photographers don't ask for your music for free. Please don't ask us to provide you with your marketing material for free."
In an addendum, Mr Sheldon clarifies that a contract of this sort is most often presented by a publication which hires a photographer to cover a concert and pay only if the photos are used. His edit reads: "It seems the circumstances of the contract aren't clear to some readers, who assume this is a work for hire contract presented for being hired and/or paid by Taylor Swift. This is not the case."
However, he told the BBC that he had to sign away rights to photos of a Taylor Swift concert in Birmingham to her management in 2011. The permission form that he signed granted long term rights to Ms Swift's management company while preventing Mr Sheldon from using them. "I can't use it in my portfolio, feature it on my website and even the original newspaper couldn't reuse it," Mr Sheldon told BBC.
Over the weekend, Taylor Swift wrote Apple a note on her Tumblr page calling their decision to not pay royalties during a three-month trial period of its new subscription streaming service "shocking, disappointing and completely unlike this historically progressive company." She said she would not be offering her album 1989 on the service writing, "We don't ask you for free iPhones, please don't ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation." In less than 24 hours, Apple vice-president Eddie Cue announced that they would pay full royalties to the artistes.
