Re: Re: Web display and "publication" in photography

On Tue, 2 Dec 2003 8:05pm, Jeff Sedlik wrote:
> Take for example a photograph that is created in a digital camera,
> transferred to a computer, and posted (either by a photographer or the
> photographer's client) on a web site or in email advertising, without
> ever having been printed on paper or other tangible substrate. This
> workflow is increasingly common. The image is recorded by a light
> sensitive device, transmitted electronically to an electronic storage
> medium (for example, a compact flash card), then transmitted
> electronically from camera to computer, from computer to web server,
> and from web server to the public, stored and displayed in viewers'
> computers.
>
> Does the fact that no material object is physically passed from
> photographer to the viewing public indicate that no "copy" has been
> created?

I think we have to be careful about distinguishing between fixed copies and transient copies. If I take a photographic slide (a fixed copy) and use it to project an image on a screen, everyone understands that the image is a transient display and not a fixed copy. I think the important distinction is that the transient display needs to be maintained actively (the projector needs to be turned on and powered and the buld needs to be functioning).

I understand that copies in RAM have been held to be copies for copyright purposes, but I'm not sure if this is correct reasoning. The copy in RAM, like the image projected on a screen, needs to be actively maintained. If the power is lost to RAM, the "copy" is lost and must be retrieved from some more permaent store. Similarly, images displayed on a screen (computer or projection) are displays and not copies.

In your digital camera example, the image recorded on the memory card of the digital camera satisfies all of the requirements for a fixed copy as would copies on a hard drive. The medium -- electronic storage -- is a fixed and tangible medium. The information stored there is reproducable to those who know how to interpret it much as sheet music or dance notation is meaingful to those skilled in its interpretation.

In your digital camera/web display example. I believe that it is quite possible for an image to be displayed at a distance over the internet without a physical copy being made anywhere. (One can turn off cacheing and virtual memory) We need to properly view it as a display and not as a copy until someone saves the image in a fixed and tangible medium where it dosn't need to be actively maintained such as a file on a hard drive.

Roy Murphy CSpice: A Mailing List for Clergy Spouses murphy@panix.com http://www.panix.com/~murphy/CSpice.html Received on Wed Dec 03 2003 - 21:53:44 GMT