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Entries to the “Piss Off Lane Hartwell” Video Contest

Below are some video montages that will soon get removed by YouTube, resulting from the inevitable DMCA notices that Wired freelance photographer Lane Hartwell will send (when she’s finished wrapping presents and invoicing strangers).

Per my earlier post, Hartmwell took action against The Ricter Scales for using a second of her photo in their “Here Comes Another Bubble.”

Copyright protection for artists? I’m all about that. But this isn’t a big corporation monetizing a starving artist without permission. This is accomplished photographer kicking the crotch of struggling amateur a Capella group that finally got some attention and made virtually nothing from it.

Hartman has the audacity to:

  • demand YouTube remove the video
  • hire an attorney
  • and invoice the struggling musicians because her lousy, stinking photo appears for a second in a video that made the group no money.

So here are some links to Lane Hartwell music videos (none of which are mine, so send your invoices somewhere else, honey) using her photos without copyright permission.

And yes I encouraged it in my video, now titled “Wired Freelancer Picks on Struggling A Capella Singers.” Check out the more than 200 comments for an interesting debate (it’s one of the top-10 “most discussed” YouTube videos in news and politics).

So sue me, Hartwell. Well, actually don’t.

P.S. Doesn’t Wired have a PR person that can reign this gal in?

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22 Comments

  1. Thank you for listing my video in your favs….but once clicked it takes you to the wrong video….Yep nalts….I’m sueing 🙂

  2. Your analogy of the national geographies was perfect! Suing over two seconds of a still photo is just plane ridiculous! Any thinking person would come to the conclusion pretty quick that she is a media whore looking for free PR. Judging her work she surely isn’t standing on any moral ground. You busted her Kevin, but you also gave her what she wanted. I think if she wishes to continue this charade the only place left for her to take this is before the court of Judge Judy.

  3. First, I, too, am all about artists’ rights. If I or anyone creates something original, we should be able to protect it however we want, to the fullest extent of the law, even if it means making enemies and alienating yourself from the entire community. It’s the creator’s choice to do that if he/she wants to.

    I’ve been reading some of the comments, debate, and discussion on Kev’s video, and most people seem to be misguided on this point: If someone else created it, you’re simply not allowed to use it without permission. Period. That’s the letter of the law, and that’s what lawyers, artists and YouTube all go by when making a ruling on infringement… It’s not personal, it’s not, “Well, I’m not making money on it, so I should be allowed…” The laws are there for people to protect their work if they want to.

    Do I agree with the photog’s actions? No. Could it have been handled better? Probably. Did the photog overreact? Assuredly. But was she within her rights? Yup.

    (Just as a side note: If you’re found guilty of copyright infringement by a court of law, the penalty is quite exorbitant. On a scale such as ours, it rarely gets that far, but still… Tread lightly, gang!)

    A link here about Fair Use: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

  4. Slater: “That’s the letter of the law, and that’s what lawyers, artists and YouTube all go by when making a ruling on infringement.”

    Slater, I love you to bits but, aaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha!

    I’d leave it at that too, but I can’t. The copy right laws need to be addressed and changed by Congress, AGAIN! They should have stopped at 20 years, most feel 7 tops, 3 best. This idea of 50 to 70 year after death is crazy!

    Let’s be real here, her two second photo was great, free and complementary PR, she got greedy and far too sensitive, not that there isn’t room for that, how boring would a Nalts video be if all he talked about was her and the band coming to a resolution? You can’t apply the letter of the law and not also expect the reaction from the court of public opinion especially, when someone produces odd ball images like Lane. Her rendition of Owen made the poor guy look fat, bald, and sweating like he ate a little too much pork for dinner, he should be suing her for defamation!

    Copyright or any property rights will always be a course of contention because people break the rules, like in traffic or while making copies at the library, some even want to forbid you from making computer back ups, and force you to pay a royalty fee for a used CD. I’m not trying to condone breaking the law or the violation of copyright, but let’s also not forget common sense and being a reasonable human beings. Kevin’s video pointed out an odd and silly little thing this women did, which was akin to viewing a photo of our beloved Santa Claus with a reindeer hard on. Sort of…

  5. One of the musicians have a multimillion dollar deal, one works for Google, another for Pixar and the photog doesn’t even have health insurance, she’s so successful.

    Wow. You are an asshole.

    Anything to try to try to crack that Technorati Top 50,000 ranking, huh?

    LOL. What a piece of shit you are.

  6. Hey, Kevin! I have an eyedeer!

    Since you have taken it upon yourself to encourage people to infringe Lane Hartwell, I am starting a contest of my own. It’s called, “Spread Kevin’s email address around the web for the spambots.”

    Hope you like it!

    kevinnalts@gmail.com

    Ideas: Message boards, Craigslist, websites, anywhere they ask you for an email address and you don’t want to give yours…

    Wow! This malicious web stuff is fun!

  7. Bright Idea Kevin Hammond. Try to advertise spamming Nalt’s email address on his own site.

    What I found more amusing is that you called Nalts an asshole, but you give up his email address to spambots? Is that hypocrisy I smell?

  8. Oh, no. That was just a starter, as an example. Very few people read this site (check his Technorati ranking: Ouch) so there is little impact here.

    I have been busy at other places with some real traffic.

    Just a little “Piss-off-contest” fair play turnabout. Numbnuts started it, after all. He seems to want to do anything possible to get his name out there. Just tryin’ to help!

  9. Dear Mr. Hammond,

    Why do you care? Do you even know Lane Hartwell?

    And as far as spamming Kevin, everyone and their grandmother has his e-mail address and when he finds time to check his mail it’s all spam anyway so you’re only adding to the congestion on the net and do you really think that is what Lane would want you to do?

    Here’s a noval idea, you want to get even with Kevin and also help Lane? Why not volunteer or work the number of hours you plane on wasting your time and donate that money to kids with cameras instead, make the world a better place instead of a petty place.

    on another topic….
    someone has been pretty quiet lately… not mentioning any names, but I wonder why… 😉

  10. Jeez Mr. Hammond, are you boning Ms. Hartwell? Because you’re sure spending an exhorbitant amount of energy insulting the hell out of someone you don’t even know.

    Or do you in fact know Nalts, and are you just one of those insidious socks that is too much of a coward to admit who he is?

    Or maybe you’re the infamous Lane Hartwell herself. Who knows?

    Anyway, Merry Christmas Mr. Hammond and/or Ms. Hartwell!!! Hope Santa leaves you a whole shitload of coal.

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