stéfan sinclair :: scribblings & musings

Yesterday (January 31st) The Toronto Star published on its front page a photograph accompanying an article about an altercation between a motorist and a bike courier. The executive summary is that the motorist allegedly threw some garbage out of his van, the courier opened the van door and threw the garbage back in, the driver threw some coffee at the courier and then got out of his van, at which point the altercation between the male driver and female courier became more physical (the details may different according to perspective, but I think the basic idea is there). It’s a remarkable story in itself, but I’m even more intrigued by two other aspects:

• The photographs were taken by a bystander who then posted an article on citynoise.org. The article was apparently noticed by the Star, which proceeded to publish its front page article; a great example of community-based blogging/journalism feeding mainstream journalism.

• The photographs were printed by the Toronto Star without the photographer’s permission, a clear contravention of copyright (in fact, the citynoise.org editor claims in the article that the photographer explicitly denied the Star permission to use the photographs). The Star attributes the photographs properly, but that’s not sufficient, as we remind our student regularly in the Multimedia programme. As someone who likes to use images in my blog posts, my class presentations, etc. (without always the due diligence that could become a full-time job), I won’t be the first to cast a stone, but I find it truly remarkable (and a bit disheartening) that a commercial publisher like the Star seems to blatantly ignore copyright laws when it comes to digital materials found on the web.