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Human Rights, Intifada, Copyright & Free Speech – 2012

Human Rights, Intifada, Copyright & Free Speech: Four protests on Saturday 11th February 2012 all have a connection with with human rights and freedom of expression.

Amnesty International’s rally was in solidarity with protesters in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere, and the Victory to the Intifada protest outside Marks and Spencers also expressed solidarity with protesters in Syria, Iran and Somalia as well as support for Palestinians.

Recent arrests at protests in the UK are attempting to criminalise any expression of support for the Palestinian Intifada – a word which refers to any resistance by Palestinians to the Israeli occupation, whether violent or non-violent. It remains to be seen whether our courts will throw out their attack on human rights and freedom of expression.

ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, was widely seen as an attempt by major film and music companies, drug manufacturers and other multinationals to infringe fundamental rights including freedom of expression and privacy for their own commercial interests and its ratification was eventually definitively rejected by the EU in July 2012.

Finally I covered a rally by One Law for All defending freedom of expression, called following increasing pressure from Islamists asking for censorship of cartoons, meetings and expressions they regard as blasphemies.

Amnesty Protest For Human Rights

Trafalgar Square

The large rally by Amnesty International was one a number of similar events in major cities across Europe, as well as in Iceland, Morocco, Nepal, Peru and Paraguay and sent thhe message to the people of the Middle East and North Africa that “you are not alone in your struggle. We are with you.”

Large numbers of Syrian protesters formed a circle around a clock tower representing that in Homs, where Clock Square has been at the centre of the protests, and danced around it, waving Syrian freedom flags, and at the rally which followed there were live link ups to protesters in two Syrian towns

There were many Egyptians also present and they and protesters from other countries spoke to an enthusiastic welcome from the crowd in the square.

*Syrians stamp on the face of War Criminal President Asad*

Amnesty Protest For Human Rights

Victory to the Intifada Picket

Marks & Spencers, Oxford St

Victory to the Intifada had been holding regular pickets outside Oxford St flagship store since 2000 and this week were also stressing solidarity with Syrian, Iran and Somalia.

Their protests showing solidarity with Palestine began at the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000, and have continued once or twice a week since then. The location on the wide pavement here was chosen as M&S is Britain’s largest corporate backer of Zionist initiatives in Israel.

They urged shoppers to oppose British support for Israel and to boycott Israeli goods and support the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

Victory to the Intifada Picket

Stop ACTA – London Protest

British Music House, Berners St

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was a treaty negotiated in secret talks with little or no public debate between major countries including the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada to protect the commercial interests of major film and music companies, drug manufacturers and other multinationals.

During the talks there was little if any representation from the artists and others who actually create the intellectual property from which these companies profit, or from the general public who pay for them.

The protesters say that ACTSA would threaten free speech on the Internet and allow governments too much control over what could be put on the web. It would also make it possible for companies to prevent the making of parodies, which would stop proper creative and critical engagement with cultural works.

The protest was opposite British Music House where the Music Publishers Association, the Performing Rights Society for Music and other groups were based, and was called by an Anonymous group calling themselves ‘Stop Acta For Freedom’ and the ‘Open Rights Group’ and was joined by the ‘Pirate Party UK’. Many of those taking part wore ‘Anonymous’ masks, some with a black pirate eye patch.

*Anti-democratic Corporate domination Technically inept Abomination – ACTA stops life-saving generic drugs for the sake of corporate profit’*

Apart from its effect on web freedom, ACTA would be used to prevent the production of cheap drugs which have a vital role in treating disease in the majority world.

Although quite a few countries initially signed up to ACTA, few ratified it and public pressure finally resulted in it being abandoned. The full European Parliament rejected it in July 2012 by 478 votes to 39.

Stop ACTA – London Protest

Defend Freedom of Expression

Old Palace Yard

*Queen Mary College poster ‘Tolerance of Intolerance is Cowardice’*

I arrived late to join the roughly 500 people listening intently to speeches at the One Law for All rally opposite the Houses of Parliament.

The event like that by Amnesty International was part of a wider international Day of Action For Free Expression, with other events in Melbourne, Brazil, Paris, Gambia, Germany, Warsaw (and elsewhere in Poland), Portugal, South Africa and the US. In the UK the Day of Action was endorsed by nearly 100 groups and individuals including Jessica Ahlquist, Richard Dawkins, Equal Rights Now, Taslima Nasrin, National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, National Secular Society, Salman Rushdie, Southall Black Sisters, and Peter Tatchell.

I felt that a few of the speakers were taking the opportunity to criticise religions in general and Christianity in particular in something of an anti-religious crusade in a way I felt was unsuitable; as I commented “atheist bigots are surely no more acceptable than religious ones“.

The protest was in response to actions taken by various authorities in this country, including at Queen Mary University and University College London acceding to demands by Islamists for the censorhip of individuals and organisations. We still see this attack on freedom of expression in institutions over this as well as other issues such as trans rights and accusations of anti-semitism by those who oppose Zionism and the activities of the Israeli government.

Defend Freedom of Expression

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Hizb ut-Tahrir, Spain and Copyright – 2009

Hizb ut-Tahrir, Spain and Copyright: on Sunday 31 May 2009 I photographed a march by Hizb ut-Tahrir against attacks by Pakistan army on Taliban militants in Swat and then went to the ‘Taste of Spain’ festival in Regent Street, which led me to think and write about the copyright position over reproductions of works of art.

As I pointed out then, if works of art are out of copyright because of their age – now because the artist died over 70 years ago – then any reproduction of them “intended to be a faithful 2D representation” lack “the the artistic intent necessary for copyright to exist and so is also in the public domain.“

Hizb ut-Tahrir, Spain and Copyright - 2009 — *Picasso died in 1973 so his work will remain copyright until 2043*

I wrote in 2009:

However copyright lawyers in the employ of many museums and photographic agencies who make money selling or licencing art reproductions take a rather different view of intellectual property law.

A judgement in the UK Court of Appeal in 2023 clarified the situation as far as the UK is concerned, confirming that photographs of two dimensional artworks which are out of copyright are indeed also in the public domain, and that museums and collections etc can no longer use copyright to restrict the circulation of images or make any charge for doing so.

We are now free to ignore any © symbols on images made by artists (including photographers) who died more than 70 years ago. Of course museums and others can still make a charge for supplying high resolution images, but if you can find large enough files on the web or by scanning reproductions in books they are yours to use, free of charge, thanks to THJ v Sheridan, 2023.

Hizb ut-Tahrir protest US War in Pakistan – US Embassy – Pakistan High Commission

Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK in January 2024 after it organised protests which supported Hamas following their October 7th attack on Israel. I had been concerned about their activities since I first photographed them over 20 years earlier.

They marched from the US Embassy to the Pakistan High Commission in protest against the attacks by the Pakistan army on Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants who had taken control of parts of the Swat Valley. They called this an “American War”, blaming them on American pressure on the Pakistan government and called for an immediate end to attacks by Muslims on Muslims.

I ended my report on the protest with a long criticism of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain calling on them to “have a proper respect for human rights, including the rights of women, although an Islamic interpretation of this may well differ in some respects from a Western one. It’s very hard not to agree with Hizb ut-Tahrir when it talks about the corrupt regimes currently leading Muslim countries, but it would also be welcome to see them standing against repression – and in particular the repression of women – that is currently practised in places including Swat and states such as Iran.”

More on My London Diary at Hizb ut-Tahrir protest War in Pakistan.

Spanish Practices in Regent St

The most impressive part of the ‘Taste of Spain’ festival in Regent Street was the display of large photographs of pictures from the Prado in Madrid which largely attracted attention because of the female nudity in some of the works (and it’s a shame that Ruskin had apparently not studied this work in detail before his wedding night, which might then have been less of a shock to his system.)

Quite a few people posed in front of it to have their picture taken – but by their friends rather than by me, but I and other photographers took advantage of this.

More pictures at Spanish Practices in Regent St.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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The Curious Society

The Curious Society is an initiative from an idea by Kenneth Jarecke of Contact Press Images to promote photojournalism, which is attempting to develop a different paying model for the genre, outside of commercial publications. Given the problems of photographers working for the current newspapers and magazines around the world I think we should welcome anything that helps photographers involved in serious photojournalism.

The underlining goal of the Curious Society is to preserve the institutional knowledge photographers and editors need to produce great photojournalism. This knowledge was once passed along in the field from old people to young people. today, most of the old folks aren’t working, so there exists a real danger of losing what they know.
https://www.curioussociety.org/faq

The major current problems putting the future of photojournalism under threat are financial and contractual. Often photojournalists now have to sign ‘work for hire’ contracts with magazines etc to get support for their projects, which means signing away their copyrights in their images for a risible ‘day rate’.

The Curious Society hopes to issue four high-quality collectable 256 page print issues a year, and to pay contributing photographers on a ‘space rate’ basis to licence their images, initially at $100 per page, but hoping to increase this as membership grows. It needs an initial 4,000 members to get off the ground for its first year, but hopes to get up to 20,000, which would enable it to increase the rate it pays photographers to $500 per page – the rate magazines like Time used once to pay.

The publications will not ‘technically’ carry any advertising, though they may accept some ‘sponsorship’ and turn it into grants or other things that will directly aid photojournalists, and they make clear that “we’re budgeted to be completely supported by our members, so the sponsors won’t be able to dictate what appears on our pages.” But this means that members have to pay the full cost of production, whereas most publications are largely paid for by advertising, turning them into vehicles to supply readers to the advertisers.

There is a lot more you can read on The Curious Society web site, with some stunning photographs. There is also an Instagram page, which they intend to be their only social media presence. Their publications will be only available to members and there will also be some member-only videos.

Although I welcome this initiative and wish it every success I do have some reservations. With individual membership at $300 per year it clearly isn’t something for me – and there are higher levels of contribution for those wanting to be more involved, as well as a half price student deal and some gift memberships for young aspiring photographers. It’s also a very USA-centric organisation, with an annual meeting in a small to medium sized town in the Rocky Mountain West – the first planned hopefully for September 2021.

Although a positive idea, it’s also one of a limited scale. At $100 per page it is only injecting around $100,000 per year into paying photojournalists, an amount that will not go far around. Welcome though it is, even if successful it will hardly have a huge impact on the industry.

I’m also just a little put off by the web site. Partly because of the kind of images that it presents, all very high impact and newsy, but perhaps sometimes more about the photographer than the subject. And perhaps not in the finest traditions of photojournalism, where the pictures that really tell the story are rather less dramatised. I also wish that the text was not all in CAPITAL LETTERS. I’m averse to being shouted at either in visuals or text.

The Curious Society
https://www.curioussociety.org/

Back to Mayfair 1987

Culross St/Park Lane area, Mayfair, Westminster, 1987 87-7a-12-positive_2400

Logically you might expect Wood’s House to be in Wood’s Mews, and it may well have been, but if so is no longer there. The frame before I took two pictures of this rather pleasant 1930s building was a view of the side in Wood’s Mews of a house in Park Lane, and the frame after is of another house further south on Park Lane on the corner of Culross St.

I suspect a building with only two stories became yielded a huge profit to developers in being built as an ugly but considerably taller block, but it would be nice to be proven wrong and to find this still tucked away in a corner.

129 Park Lane, Mayfair, Westminster, 1987 87-7a-36-positive_2400

I think this rather splendid marble (I think) steps are still there on Park Lane behind the high wall that now keeps them out of view of the hoi polloi who often crowd the area around the bus stops close to this corner with Green St.

Perhaps walls like that which now hides these steps and the view from the pavement of the houses behind are a result of the increase in inequality in our society and reflect an increasing unease among the elites. Though there have been few signs of the London mob in recent years. More likely the owners got fed up with finding people sitting on them waiting for buses.

Eagle Squadron, memorial, Grosvenor Square, Wesminster, 1987 87-7a-41-positive_2400

Before the US joined in the Second World War at the end of 1941, 244 US citizens volunteered to join the RAF and served in the RAF, flying Spitfires and Hurricanes in three three Royal Air Force Eagle Squadrons, despite US laws which meant losing their citizenship for fighting for a foreign power The squadrons were transferred to the USAF in 1942 and the pilots were pardoned in 1944.

The bronze eagle on the top of the column is by Elizabeth Frink, and the memorial was financed by US newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst. It was unveiled here by Margaret Thatcher in 1986.

US Embassy, Upper Grosvenor St, Mayfair, Westminster, 1987 87-7a-43-positive_2400

Grosvenor Square was chosen as the site for the Eagle Squadron memorial because of the US Embassy which occupied the entire west end of the square. It was then a fine example of modern architecture and lacked the high fences, ugly lodges and patrolling armed police that made it a rather grim feature in more recent years. I think the long queue is of people queuing to enter the embassy to get US visas.

Car, Gilbert St, St Anselm's Place, Mayfair, Westminster, 1987 87-7a-64-positive_2400

I have to admit to knowing nothing about cars. But this one parked in Gilbert Street was obviously a little out of the ordinary and I imagine very expensive. It looked to me like something out of a black and white film noir, and perhaps the setting would have served too. I’m sure there will be people who see this picture and can immediately recognise the make, model and date – and if so I hope they let me know in a comment.

To me it looks American, and the style seems to belong to the late 1930s, though it could be a modern replica, possibly one made for use in a film. It has an engine that doesn’t quite fit in the bonnet, perhaps 8 cylinders. The number plate NGF786Y no longer appears to exist. This is also a picture I seem to have missed retouching and there are more than usual number of scratches and dust spots.

Davies St, Mayfair, Westminster, 1987 87-7a-65-positive_2400

It isn’t hard to identify this building as the Grosvenor Works of John Bolding and Sons in Davies Street, as their name is proudly displayed on a plaque at bottom left and on the building at top right, with the initials JBS featuring twice in the centre of the picture. The company was founded by Thomas Bolding in 1822 in South Molton St and they were at first brass founders.

By the 1870s they had moved into the business they became famous for as providers of high-class sanitary equipment. They moved to this site in the late 1880s and these premises were built as a showroom for their goods, with a foundry elsewhere in London. The architects were Wimperis and Arber; John Thomas Wimperis had been appointed as one of the Grosvenor Estates approved architects in 1887 and his assistant William Henry Arber became a partner in 1889.

In 1963 Boldings bought up the business of their rather better-known rival Thomas Crapper. But a few years later in 1969 Boldings was wound up, while Thomas Crapper & Company Limited, founded in 1836, continues in business based in Huddersfield, offering ” a small yet extraordinarily authentic set of Victorian/Edwardian sanitaryware.”

The River Tyburn runs through the basement of the building which is now occupied by Grays Antiques, established in 1977. The river is a tourist attraction with large goldfish swimming in it.

Park Lane, Mayfair, Westminster, 1987 87-7b-66-positive_2400

93 Park Lane, a small part of which is visible at extreme right was a speculative rebuild of 1823-25 by builder Samuel Baxter and is Grade I listed primarily because it “was Benjamin Disraeli’s London residence from 1839 to 1872; Coningsby, much of Sybil and other novels by Disraeli were written here”, whereas the others are all Grade II. 94 to its left was also rebuilt by Baxter at the same date. Next left, 95 was rebuilt in 1842-4 by John Harrison in plain brick with stucco only on the ground floor; the rounded 96 was rebuilt in 1826 as was its more angular neighbour 97. Almost entirely out of sight at left, 98 from 1823-5 was from 1888-94 the residence of Frank Harris, “author and adventurer”, and the final house in the terrace, not in my picture, was also built then by Jon Goldicutt and was the home from 1826-85 of philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore.

Many other photographers have photographed these houses, including Bill Brandt, who made his picture on a Spring afternoon in 1932 from behind railings across the south-bound carriageway, with a London bus in traffic behind a rather grander horse-drawn carriage driven by two top-hatted men. On page 27 of ‘Camera In London’ it appears with the simple title ‘Mayfair’. The Tate website lists it as “Regency Houses, Park Lane, Mayfair – c.1930–9, later print” and apologises “SORRY, COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS PREVENT US FROM SHOWING THIS OBJECT HERE”, but you can view it on Artnet where it is captioned “Park Lane (Mayfair, London) , ca. 1960”. I increasingly think that our current copyright law needs review.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

Essential Metadata

I’m always surprised to find that there are still some photographers who send out photographs without metadata, and in particular without the information that clearly claims their copyright, names them as creator and gives contact details.

The place where this information needs to be is in the IPTC data, and any software worth using to edit your images will have some relatively easy way to add it. It’s certainly a breeze with Lightroom which I use, and simply a matter of adding the information once to your import preset. Though you do also have to remember to update the copyright date once a year – something to put as a reminder in your diary for each New Year’s Day.

Some photographers confuse this IPTC data with the EXIF data which your camera probably offers to write to your pictures, but it is quite separate. Of course it’s a good idea to also do this, but it really doesn’t matter too much, and these fields are often not read by software that displays EXIF.

The other IPTC field that should always have some content in pictures you release to others is of course the caption (aka description) field, where the usual ‘5W’s’ apply – Where, When, Who, What and Why (I think in a more useful order than usually given, with my captions for today starting ‘London, UK. 28th July 2018.’) I also always add a Headline, which defines a set of images on a particular subject or event, while the details in captions may sometimes differ.

But captions are always specific, applying to a particular image, and not a part of the process you can readily automate, though you may well synchronise them across a particular set of images. I usually write a general caption for an event, then after synchronising go through each picture, altering or adding to this as appropriate.

The other IPTC field worth always filling in is the keywords, and again though there are various aids to doing this, it should also be specific to the event and image.

This post was prompted by seeing the post IPTC Metadata Conference on the BPPA website, which contains some similar information and also gives examples on how to add the data in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Photo Mechanic. There are some subtle differences in my approach, but certainly not in the overall advice that this is something you should always do for every image you send out.

I think a more sensible approach is to ensure that every image you bring into your computer has the three absolutely vital fields – Creator, Contact and Copyright – automatically added.

I use both Lightroom and Photoshop, but Lightroom is the basis of my workflow for digital images, with PS just getting the occasional call when more dirty work is needed (and particularly for retouching scanned negatives.) Probably it would be possible to set up some more automatic method of entering IPTC data with PS, but one of my many reasons for preferring LR is how it automates the process for entering three of what the BPPA article calls the ‘Four Cs‘.