Slashdot Mirror

I live in South Florida. Broward County is north of Miami-Dade County. Like any urban city, the politicians and school boards are full of corruption and conflicts of interest.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com...
http://stateimpact.npr.org/flo...

Seemingly everyone from the janitors to the superintendents are in on the take. They have hired felons in all levels. Some of them interact with kids:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach....

So yeah, the fact that there's no money for teaching after the all prostitutes and the payoffs and the other criminal activity is no surprise.

I work in the school system, btw.

Don't take my word, just Google it.

"Max first came to shoot The Color Run because we granted his school class non-commercial access to come shoot the race in Miami where the photos in question were taken. After this, Max actually ended up working our events over the next year as a non-photographer and traveling and setting up with our traveling teams."

"About a year later, Max first initiated questions about the use of some of the Miami photos. We sat down and genuinely tried to reach an amicable solution, including offering financial compensation and exposure through our networks. Our offers were declined, and met with the following demands:(language taken from legal filings)."

`-"$100,000.00 US deposited into my business bank account" (This amount went on to be raised by Max to $300,000).'

`-"To be named the Official Photography Sponsor of The Color Run (Globally) for the remainder of its existence."'

`-"Max Jackson Logo to be added in sponsors section on the bottom of all web pages"'

`-"My name to read at the bottom of any TCR photo's used in legible print from the next print run forward as, Photograph by Max Jackson"'

`-"if no efforts are made within 15 days, to contact me I will be forced to take further action"' ..

.. "when Max said he was planning to sue rather than continue a dialogue, there was little option left but to defend our rights through the legal system." ...

Response from Color Run

Can you make reasonable attempts to settle a case when someone asks $100k for something worth $2-3k and then threatens legal action?

If you are using someone's "something" worth $2-3k without permission, then you're in a pretty piss-poor bargaining position and $100k night actually be not such a bad price to pay. The statutory damages for copyright infringement can be pretty steep:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

"Plaintiffs who can show willful infringement may be entitled to damages up to $150,000 per work."

However, statutory damages are unavailable unless you have registered your copyright within 3 months of first publication or within 1 month of learning of infringement. It is unlikely he did this, and as a result, he can only collect actual damages, which may be closer to the range of a few hundred or a couple thousand, based on what similar license agreements go for. Possibly even less, if the Color Run folks can show that there was no market for his photos to anyone else.

It's a very one-sided interpretation - the company had partial rights to the photo and used it wrong, so in turn the kid refuses normal recompense, demands the world for the photos, and would only go through the courts. Leave it to Slashdot to be a strong supporter of stressing technicalities and suing over nothing and extorting money over copyrights, when it suits their purpose in some other way. From their response

We sat down and genuinely tried to reach an amicable solution, including offering financial compensation and exposure through our networks. Our offers were declined, and met with the following demands:(language taken from legal filings)

-"$100,000.00 US deposited into my business bank account" (This amount went on to be raised by Max to $300,000).

-"To be named the Official Photography Sponsor of The Color Run (Globally) for the remainder of its existence."

-"Max Jackson Logo to be added in sponsors section on the bottom of all web pages"

-"My name to read at the bottom of any TCR photo's used in legible print from the next print run forward as, Photograph by Max Jackson"

-"if no efforts are made within 15 days, to contact me I will be forced to take further action"

Understandably, these demands were quite difficult. They went far outside professional compensation and credit for photography work. We discussed other options, and ultimately when Max said he was planning to sue rather than continue a dialogue, there was little option left but to defend our rights through the legal system.

Can you make reasonable attempts to settle a case when someone asks $100k for something worth $2-3k and then threatens legal action?

If you are using someone's "something" worth $2-3k without permission, then you're in a pretty piss-poor bargaining position and $100k night actually be not such a bad price to pay. The statutory damages for copyright infringement can be pretty steep:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

"Plaintiffs who can show willful infringement may be entitled to damages up to $150,000 per work."

Can you make reasonable attempts to settle a case when someone asks $100k for something worth $2-3k and then threatens legal action?

I won't support a photographer who attempts to extort a company to the tune of $100k

As usual on Slashdot you only get one side of the story, and people all over cry in sympathy. I did too until I realised this photographer is quite the arsehole, I'd have sued him too if he tried a stunt like that. I worked in the industry. His work is worth $2-3k tops. Even less because he's freelance.

Jackson wrote that instead, he was "requesting compensation as follows: $100,000.00 US deposited into my business bank account, additionally to be named the Official Photography Sponsor of The Color Run (Internationally) for the remainder of its existence, my Logo to be added in sponsors section next to Chevy on the bottom of your web pages. My name to read at the bottom of any photo's used in legible print from the next print run forward as, Photogrph by Max Jackson." He warned "if no efforts are made within 15 days, to contact me I will be forced to take further action." Source

The kid should be compensated but this is borderline extortion.

Ex-Broward teachers union chief charged with theft, fraud

ARRESTED: School Board Member Stephanie Kraft and Husband Mitch

Ex-Broward School Board member Beverly Gallagher sentenced to 37 months in prison

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/06/exschool-board-member-beverly-gallagher-sentenced-to-37-months-in-prison.html#storylink=cpy

That's just in the past 5 years.

Thanks. Here's a better coverage.

This is not related to topic on hand, as there were no monitoring or searching for suspects on Google: "Ayers was arrested several days following the killing after reportedly telling a friend that he did it". Google and Facebook got involved later while looking for evidence, as I suspected from the start.

Jailed? Not that I'm aware of. Snooped on? Yes - let me find at least two links to stories that come to mind - - -

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/secret-service-investigates-ted-nugent-remarks-on-obama/

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-03-23/louisiana-comment-obama/53741346/1

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2012/06/terry_jones_hangs_obama.php

http://gawker.com/5498597/obama-death-tweeter-being-investigated-by-secret-service

That should be enough, I would think. I was looking for a couple others - one was a crusty old redneck, the other some black guy from a southern city, each of who made similar comments to those linked to above.

Before you ask - I think the Secret Service is basically doing the job they are supposed to do, in each of these stories. But - there is a very thin line between doing their job properly, and becoming something like the KGB or the Stazi. Very thin line, indeed. Recent events have shown that the Secret Service is NOT incorruptible. It is improbable, but possible, that the SS could be turned into a tool of the administration to round up people like Ted Nugent, and to "silence" them, in whatever manner. Ted would have to be handled very carefully. Some redneck from Backwoods, Nowhere could just be snuffed, and his family told that he "resisted arrest".

"Snooped on" is common, these days. No less common than it was during the McCarthy days. Less public than in the McCarthy days, but just as common.

Behavioral profiling is effective.

Considering that TSA can't even weed out criminals during the hiring process I don't have much faith that TSA agents will prove much more adept at picking out terrorists in a 30 second interview prior to boarding an airplane.

Dio, dead? Looks like reincarnation, right there!

Article in local FL paper