RE: [Leica] Photos on the Web, TED!! help?

[Austin Franklin <austin@darkroom.com>]

> > > Your model of business is almost like that of a hotel owner, who 
provides
> > > a customer a room for a month, but then, as part of the one month 
lease,
> >> lets the customer come back whenever he wants for further stays.
> >
> >Wrong.  Irrelevant analogy.  The customer didn't pay to build the hotel 
in
> >the first place.

> ...and they didn't pay for my cameras, lighting gear, studio overhead,
> education, insurance, years of capital investment, automobile,
> administration costs.....

That's the cost of doing business.  You are compensated for these tools in 
the rate you charge, and you need them to do the job.  Any trade that 
requires tools, such as carpenters, plumbers, excavators, lawn maintenance 
etc. brings their own tools.  Why are photographers 'special'?

> THAT is the risk professional photographers bring to the table.

Where is the risk?  You bought the tools to do the job, so what?  As I said 
above, that is required of any self employed person.  That is the risk of 
doing business.  You are still paid for your work.

>  Long term risk requires long term security. That security is the 
ownership of
> copyright thus making the investment viable in the long term by making
> income possible in the long term.

A very liberal point of view.  What security does the local sub shop owner 
have?  S/he bought all the equipment for the store?  S/he doesn't own the 
right to be the only sub shop in the neighborhood...there is no security. 
 The security is providing a good service so people want to hire you.  You 
work, you get paid.  That's the security.

> My business (which holds my stock library
> and licensing rights) will be earning money long after my ashes are
> scattered in the North Atlantic. My daughter should be able to make a
> modest living from this business after I retire and she will never have 
to
> pick up a camera.

You have every right to do with your images that you created on your own 
time and with your own money as you please, and you should own the 
copyrights to it.  There is no argument there.  If someone else paid me to 
shoot some images, and provided the subject matter etc., I, personally, 
believe it is wrong for me to re-sell those images.  I believe these two 
are completely different issues.