Scoopt Blog

Papping children

What do you make of this?

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, took exception to a newspaper publishing a picture of her 20-month-old son as she pushed him along in his buggy on a public street. But her case was thrown out. According to the judge:

"The law does not in my judgment (as it stands) allow them to carve out a press-free zone for their children in respect of absolutely everything they choose to do."

As a picture agency, our natural reaction might be one of jubiliation. Freedom of the press and all that. But really it's not. Whether it's legal or not... whether you can justify publication because the article was about  motherhood... and leaving aside the issue of the long lens and surreptious methods used to take the photo... there is, in our view, simply something distasteful about publishing unsolicited pictures of celebrities' children.

Sure, there are grey areas but we took the decision from day one not to handle pics of kids. We haven't changed our position (see here). Your thoughts?

What Lily did next...

Bad news for songstress Lily Allen today -- she has had her US work visa revoked on account of bad behaviour back in Blighty.

"She was detained for five hours but not strip searched. Understandably she was upset by it."

Well, quite -- a robust strip search is one of the things you look forward to when visiting the US these days.

Photo credits: Chris Potter

A rather optimistic call for content...

'Citizen Correspondent'? ITV wants you...

Today sees the launch of UK broadcaster ITV's new Uploaded feature, where you, the viewer, get to contribute to the news. The press release is here (PDF) and you can read more on the story here.

"For the first time, viewers’ contributions will not just be an add-on to coverage of the big stories – they will become an integral part of all three ITV News bulletins every day... A Citizen Exclusives section will give everyone a platform to contact the ITV News team directly if they have captured amazing exclusive footage."

Hurrah! And how exactly will ITV reward you for your "amazing exclusive footage"... footage that may be worth many thousands of pounds? Well, the devil is in the small print:

"By making a Submission to our Website, you grant us a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free and transferable licence (with the right to sub-license) to use, edit, reproduce, record, modify, translate, distribute, play, perform, make available to the other users of the Services, prepare derivative works of and to display your Submission by any medium or method whether now known or later developed to be exercised in our sole discretion throughout the world for the full term of copyright and other rights and all renewable and extension thereof including, for the avoidance of doubt, the right to register any design rights and/or trademarks. You agree to waive your moral rights in your Submission."

That's right -- you will receive no payment whatsoever... and ITV is free to sell on your contribution around the world to other media markets. You won't even get a credit, let alone cash.

It's amazing. When Scoopt launched two years ago, the mainstream media was all too willing to exploit 'user-generated content' and contributors were for the most part unaware that they could seek fair reward for newsworthy photos and videos. But times have changed, thanks in part to our efforts. If it's good enough to broadcast or publish, it's good enough to pay for. So send your newsworthy* content to Scoopt instead and we'll license it on your behalf to media buyers at the market rate -- and that includes ITV! And if your pic or video gets sub-licensed elsewhere, you'll get paid every time.

ITV Uploaded - Duff Deal of the Day.

* For more on newsworthy, see here.

TB or not TB...

So Shambo, the sacred bullock, gets another reprieve from the slaughterhouse because UK government officials first showed up without a warrant and then couldn't get access to the Skanda Vale site. Full story here (certain to update later) and one of our photos, taken by Ross Pierson, below.

UPDATE: Whoops, Shambo's just had the chop.

Water, water everywhere

Whether you blame global warming, local authorities building houses on flood plains, a seasonal blip in the weather or God missing the celestial toilet again, the fact is that much of England is currently underwater.  We're getting a constant flow of great, albeit alarming, pics. You can check them out here

Photo credit: Linda Kay Sladek

Journalist looking for cell phone snappers...

We've received this request from Danny Bradbury, a journo based in Canada, who wants to speak with one of more Scoopt members in connection with an article:

The article is for the Canwest Syndicate, which with its combined papers has a readership of over a million people in Canada. It includes papers such as the Vancouver Sun and Saskatoon Star Phoenix, as well as the National Post. My research deadline is the close of play this Thursday 26th July. I am hoping to speak to a cellphone camera user (has to be a cellphone camera) who has used their device to take and submit news images to Scoopt. I will use the interviewee as a case study to demonstrate the social importance of cellphone cameras as a way of taking and disseminating news images.

Please get in touch at +1 780 628 5755 (Canadian number) or by email at danny@itjournalist.com

If you can help, especially if you are based in Canada or the US, please get in touch with Danny directly. Thanks.

Down-shorts is the new up-skirt

Curiously enough, I was just admiring/grimacing over some scary pics of Amy Winehouse from yesterday over here (and that's surely the best blog post title this year) when Richard Horsfield at kasstzam sent in a some shots of her playing a gig later that same day, down in Cornwall. Pics are here. Curiouser still, she seems to be trying to climb out of her shorts. Now there's a caption competition picture if ever I saw one...

Centre-page spread!

Sorry for blog hiatus... been on holiday.

Anyway, good news for Scoopt member George Kouvalias. His picture of a Canadair tackling a fire near the Acropolis in Athens was selected by The Guardian for its Eyewitness slot and run in colour on the centre-page spread today. Nice one, George!

Scoopt on the telly

Always nice to be acknowledged as a logical extension :-)

Simon Willis produced a cracking report on citizen journalism/user-generated content/punter pix for the BBC Newsnight Scotland, broadcast last night. You can catch it here for, I think, 24 hours or so. Below is our contribution to the piece: