Wednesday, December 06, 2006

And the Worst Advice Award Goes to...

SmartMoney, an online magazine that purports to save their readers money by giving them tips on how to avoid spending too much, devoted a section of an article to class photos. Their sage advice against spending more than parents wish? “Worried you won’t have a spare to send to Grandma? Consider scanning your copy or email a cute digital shot you took yourself.”

Yeah. Send one you took yourself. Don’t violate a photographer’s copyright, however, by scanning the image. To do so is to endanger the photographer's livlihood. I dare say that most people would not walk into a store and just take what they wanted without paying for it, but I wonder how many parents are taking this advice to heart and scanning with abandon?

And the worst part? The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and Professional Photographers of America (PPA) have deluged SmartMoney with emails. While SmartMoney has made the article more difficult to find, they have also refused to retract the advice. That, in most states, is called “conspiracy.”








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