Photographer Calls Out Taylor Swift For Being a Hypocrite

Taylor Swift has been getting a good deal of attention in the last few weeks. First calling apple out on an unfair usage of her music, and now people are claiming that she has done the same to photographers in the past. Though it is similar, this is totally a different situation. Taylor Swift has not called these photographers to come to the concert. The photographers are asking permission to go to the concert to shoot photos. She's saying they can, but these are the conditions. Its her concert, why can't she set the conditions? Apple wants to use her work, and not pay her for it. This photographer wants to use her face, and now have her put any conditions on what he does with it. It seems to me that he is much closer to Apple in this than she is. They both want to use her product without any restrictions from her. - FredDerfman Still this is an interesting read into usage rights!   Taylor Swift has been accused making photographers hand over their lucrative rights to her. A photographer has penned an open letter to Taylor Swift accusing her of taking lucrative rights to images - just hours after she criticised Apple for not paying artists fairly. Jason Sheldon, a freelance photographer based in Birmingham, West Midlands, claims that copyright of all pictures taken of the pop star during concerts are passed to her agency after their first use. This means that following the initial publication of photographs, for which a freelancer usually accepts a one-off fee, he cannot further exploit his work. The 25-year-old's agency, Firefly Entertainment Inc (FEI), then has the right to use the material for promotional purposes with the publisher's permission. It comes after the Shake It Off singer wrote her own open letter to Apple giving her reasons for refusing to allow her album 1989 to be included in their new music streaming service. She was successful in convincing the company to pay writers, producers and artists royalties during a three month free trial for those who sign up for Apple Music today. But in the hours after she published the letter on her website, Mr Sheldon took to his own blog where he accuses her of double standards and asks how she is 'any different to Apple?' He also posted a copy of the contract that he was asked to sign before he photographed her in 2011 during her concert at LG Arena, Birmingham, on his Junction 10 Photography website. Mr Sheldon claims that the contract allows her agency 'free and unlimited use' of his work 'worldwide, in perpetuity', although her team say he has misrepresented this clause. He states: 'Now... forgive me if I'm wrong, but if you take points 2 and 3 in that contract (which is provided to photographers who need to agree to those terms before they are allowed to do their job in photographing you for editorial outlets), it appears to be a complete rights grab, and demands [...]

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