The audacity!

[Experiment_626]

I was reading Ken Rockwell's pre-release information on Nikon's new 55-300mm DX zoom, and found the following at the bottom of the page, which I'd never noticed prior to today:
As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!

I know not everything on Rockwell's site is meant to be taken seriously (even some of the stuff meant to be taken seriously shouldn't be), but really! The above, on the page where I found it, actually includes a "helpful" PayPal link so you can easily send the guy money for the privilege of printing out one of his reviews.

I'd love to know how many takers he gets ...

[saturndb]

He is a goof. Who would want to copy his stuff anyway

[Twigs]

Back a year or 2 when I looked at his site it said you could print out one copy for personal use for free, but had the pay pal info for donations or making more than one copy.

[zackiedawg]

I can't imagine that any copyright rule would hold up to that scrutiny anyway - by merit of posting it on the internet for public consumption, copyright law would only prevent plagiarizing it, posting content from it on anothet site, or attempting to sell, publish, or disseminate it without permission. Printing it for personal use is highly unlikely to be covered within copyright law.

Most likely, he's figured out a way to pick up an occasional side profit by scaring folks who are too timid, too honest, and not very knowledgeable, into believing they must pay him. Even if 1 out of 100 people fall for it, he can pick up a handsome little spare change!

(I hereby declare that my post also cannot be replicated or printed for personal use. Moreover, it cannot be read, unless I am paid $5. Anyone who has read the above statement or wishing to read the above statement should contact me by Private Message, and I will forward my PayPal account information. I will consider all posts that follow mine to be tacit proof of having read my post, and therefore having agreed contractually to pay me $5. Thank you).

[Uncle Greg]

(I hereby declare that my post also cannot be replicated or printed for personal use. Moreover, it cannot be read, unless I am paid $5. Anyone who has read the above statement or wishing to read the above statement should contact me by Private Message, and I will forward my PayPal account information. I will consider all posts that follow mine to be tacit proof of having read my post, and therefore having agreed contractually to pay me $5. Thank you).


Quoted merely to initiate litigation. :banana:

[Raindown]

I'm not sure who Ken Rockwell is but, just because something is posted to the internet doesn't automatically mean the author has lost rights in the proverbial bundle given by copyright law. One of the exclusive rights given to an author is the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies.

[MICKEY88]

(I hereby declare that my post also cannot be replicated or printed for personal use. Moreover, it cannot be read, unless I am paid $5. Anyone who has read the above statement or wishing to read the above statement should contact me by Private Message, and I will forward my PayPal account information. I will consider all posts that follow mine to be tacit proof of having read my post, and therefore having agreed contractually to pay me $5. Thank you).

hmm I wonder how well you would do in court, since your post is in violation of disboards policy.. :lmao::lmao:

[ukcatfan]

I'm not sure who Ken Rockwell is but, just because something is posted to the internet doesn't automatically mean the author has lost rights in the proverbial bundle given by copyright law. One of the exclusive rights given to an author is the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies.

It takes know about the guy to understand why it is so funny. Here is a well published parody about the guy:

* Ken Rockwell is the Chuck Norris of photography

* Ken Rockwell's camera has similar settings to ours, except his are: P[erfect] Av[Awesome Priority Tv[Totally Awesome Priority] M[ajestic]

* Ken Rockwell doesn't color correct. He adjusts your world to match his.

* Sure, Ken Rockwell deletes a bad photo or two. Other people call these Pulitzers.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't adjust his DOF, he changes space-time.

* Circle of confusion? You might be confused. Ken Rockwell never is.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't wait for the light when he shoots a landscape - the light waits for him.

* Ken Rockwell never flips his camera in portrait position, he flips the earth

* Ken Rockwell ordered an L-lens from Nikon, and got one.

* Ken Rockwell is the only person to have photographed Jesus; unfortunately he ran out of film and had to use a piece of cloth instead.

* When Ken Rockwell brackets a shot, the three versions of the photo win first place in three different categories

* Before Nikon or Canon releases a camera they go to Ken and they ask him to test them, the best cameras get a Nikon sticker and the less good get a Canon sticker

* Once Ken tested a camera, he said I cant even put Canon on this one,thats how Pentax was born

* Rockwellian policy isn't doublethink - Ken doesn't even need to think once

* Ken Rockwell doesn't use flash ever since the Nagasaki incident.

* Only Ken Rockwell can take pictures of Ken Rockwell; everyone else would just get their film overexposed by the light of his genius

* Ken Rockwell wanted something to distract the lesser photographers, and lo, there were ducks.

* Ken Rockwell is the only one who can take self-portraits of you

* Ken Rockwell's nudes were fully clothed at the time of exposure

* Ken Rockwell once designed a zoom lens. You know it as the Hubble SpaceTelescope.

* When Ken unpacks his CF card, it already has masterpieces on it.

* Rockwell portraits are so lifelike, they have to pay taxes

* On Ken Rockwell's desktop, the Trash Icon is really a link to National Geographic Magazine

* Ken Rockwell spells point-and-shoot "h-a-s-s-e-l-b-l-a-d"

* When Ken Rockwell went digital, National Geographic nearly went out of business because he was no longer physically discarding photos

* For every 10 shots that Ken Rockwell takes, 11 are keepers.

* Ken Rockwell's digital files consist of 0's, 1's AND 2's.

* Ken Rockwell never focus, everything moves into his DoF

* Ken Rockwell's shots are so perfect, Adobe redesigned photoshop for him: all it consists of is a close button.

* The term tripod was coined after his silhouette

* Ken Rockwell never produces awful work, only work too advanced for the viewer

* A certain brand of high-end cameras was named after people noticed the quality was a lot "like a" rockwell

* Ken Rockwell isn't the Chuck Norris of photography; Chuck Norris is the Ken Rockwell of martial arts.

* Ken Rockwell never starts, he continues

[KAT4DISNEY]

:rotfl2: LOL ukcatfan - that's the best laugh of the day! Actually the week!!

[Marlton Mom]

Quote: Blah, blah, blah....." If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!"

Dang it! I've only been charging a dollar for my Dis Board Photography questions, um I mean posts.

When did the rate go up????

Oops, you read this! Now you owe me a dollar!

www.pay my sorry asp.calm

;)
Marlton mom

[zackiedawg]

I'm not sure who Ken Rockwell is but, just because something is posted to the internet doesn't automatically mean the author has lost rights in the proverbial bundle given by copyright law. One of the exclusive rights given to an author is the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies.

Not at all...indeed he can copyright the work, and noone could reprint it on their own site, or send it out in a newsletter...that would be copyright infringement. However, the printing of information from the internet for personal use has consistently been deemed 'fair use' in the few cases where it came up.

The key words are personal use. If publishing, quoting, posting on one's own website, charging for, etc...that would be protected by copyright law. Printing out an internet article on your home printer and showing it to your sister before tossing it in the garbage? Fair use...not to mention well nigh unprosecutable and undetectable.

[photo_chick]

The thing with Ken Rockwell is he looks good on the surface. He comes off as knowledgeable. But when you get into some of his stuff it's flawed and you can tell he does not know as much as he likes to think he does.

And that's as nice as I can be about the chauvinist.

now about the copyright...

Fair use is not the same as personal use.

With things like this though it's more about the intent of the poster. In this case, Dipwell... I mean Rockwell has specifically stated his intent, that it not be copied, printed, etc. And if it is registered then he's pretty well covered.

And I probably don't know as much as I think I do either... but we did just have a lawyer come in and talk about this very subject in one of my classes.

[disneyboy2003]

(I hereby declare that my post also cannot be replicated or printed for personal use. Moreover, it cannot be read, unless I am paid $5. Anyone who has read the above statement or wishing to read the above statement should contact me by Private Message, and I will forward my PayPal account information. I will consider all posts that follow mine to be tacit proof of having read my post, and therefore having agreed contractually to pay me $5. Thank you).


$5


Oops, you read this! Now you owe me a dollar!


$1


Boy, reading this message board is getting to be pretty pricey. I'm gonna have to hang out at the Budget Board from now on.

[MICKEY88]

It takes know about the guy to understand why it is so funny. Here is a well published parody about the guy:

* Ken Rockwell is the Chuck Norris of photography

* Ken Rockwell's camera has similar settings to ours, except his are: P[erfect] Av[Awesome Priority Tv[Totally Awesome Priority] M[ajestic]

* Ken Rockwell doesn't color correct. He adjusts your world to match his.

* Sure, Ken Rockwell deletes a bad photo or two. Other people call these Pulitzers.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't adjust his DOF, he changes space-time.

* Circle of confusion? You might be confused. Ken Rockwell never is.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't wait for the light when he shoots a landscape - the light waits for him.

* Ken Rockwell never flips his camera in portrait position, he flips the earth

* Ken Rockwell ordered an L-lens from Nikon, and got one.

* Ken Rockwell is the only person to have photographed Jesus; unfortunately he ran out of film and had to use a piece of cloth instead.

* When Ken Rockwell brackets a shot, the three versions of the photo win first place in three different categories

* Before Nikon or Canon releases a camera they go to Ken and they ask him to test them, the best cameras get a Nikon sticker and the less good get a Canon sticker

* Once Ken tested a camera, he said I cant even put Canon on this one,thats how Pentax was born

* Rockwellian policy isn't doublethink - Ken doesn't even need to think once

* Ken Rockwell doesn't use flash ever since the Nagasaki incident.

* Only Ken Rockwell can take pictures of Ken Rockwell; everyone else would just get their film overexposed by the light of his genius

* Ken Rockwell wanted something to distract the lesser photographers, and lo, there were ducks.

* Ken Rockwell is the only one who can take self-portraits of you

* Ken Rockwell's nudes were fully clothed at the time of exposure

* Ken Rockwell once designed a zoom lens. You know it as the Hubble SpaceTelescope.

* When Ken unpacks his CF card, it already has masterpieces on it.

* Rockwell portraits are so lifelike, they have to pay taxes

* On Ken Rockwell's desktop, the Trash Icon is really a link to National Geographic Magazine

* Ken Rockwell spells point-and-shoot "h-a-s-s-e-l-b-l-a-d"

* When Ken Rockwell went digital, National Geographic nearly went out of business because he was no longer physically discarding photos

* For every 10 shots that Ken Rockwell takes, 11 are keepers.

* Ken Rockwell's digital files consist of 0's, 1's AND 2's.

* Ken Rockwell never focus, everything moves into his DoF

* Ken Rockwell's shots are so perfect, Adobe redesigned photoshop for him: all it consists of is a close button.

* The term tripod was coined after his silhouette

* Ken Rockwell never produces awful work, only work too advanced for the viewer

* A certain brand of high-end cameras was named after people noticed the quality was a lot "like a" rockwell

* Ken Rockwell isn't the Chuck Norris of photography; Chuck Norris is the Ken Rockwell of martial arts.

* Ken Rockwell never starts, he continues

that's not a parody, it's the bio page he wrote for himself

[Raindown]

The key words are personal use.

My copy of the copyright act is on the bookshelf below my JD. The four factors for fair use don't include the word personal in them.

[zackiedawg]

Fair dealing uses are research and study; review and critique; parody and satire; news reportage and the giving of professional advice. I suppose a court case could be initiated with the personal use printing offender claiming research as the purpose of the printing...or review and critique. The fair use law is intentionally hazy - you'd be hard pressed to find any legal precedent where someone was prosecuted for copyright infingement for personal use of text on the internet. In Canada, printing for personal use has been directly listed within their copyright laws since 1999.

But you're right - Personal Use is not literally written out within US fair use code. Under clause 1, the purpose and character of the use, would likely be where the personal user would be able to escape...as well as clause 4 on the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

[disneyboy2003]

Wikipedia had an article about Ken Rockwell back in 2008. For real! It ended up getting deleted in 70 days.

Here's the article (http://deletionpedia.dbatley.com/w/index.php?title=Ken_Rockwell_(deleted_23_Apr_2008_ at_22:17)) from deletionpedia.com (an archive of deleted Wikipedia pages).

Ken Rockwell visited B&H in New York City, and B&H made a HUGE deal about it. He gets a VIP tour of B&H, and the B&H folks are groveling all around him. Here's the video: link (http://www.video.bhphotovideo.com/?fr_story=ef0f3de7b5ea5750560e777b11b73fafe5f5cd8d&rf=bm).

:sad2:

[Raindown]

The fair use law is intentionally hazy -

It's true and it kills me a little when it comes to photos. When I take a great photograph you just want to display it. Unfortunately it usually has to end up getting a healthy watermark on it. I'd love to share more pictures on the web but, it really ends up feeling like giving it away.

[ukcatfan]

that's not a parody, it's the bio page he wrote for himself

:rotfl2:

[ukcatfan]

Ken Rockwell visited B&H in New York City, and B&H made a HUGE deal about it. He gets a VIP tour of B&H, and the B&H folks are groveling all around him. Here's the video: link (http://www.video.bhphotovideo.com/?fr_story=ef0f3de7b5ea5750560e777b11b73fafe5f5cd8d&rf=bm).

:sad2:

That is because they know that he does influence some people's buying habits. They could care less about his abilities and only care what they can make off him. I do not blame them.

[Geoff_M]

Rockwell lost all credibility with me when he started writing "reviews" of camera and lenses that he'd never seen or held. They were based purely on manufacturer specs in announcement press releases. But Rockwell knows that people on the web desperately seek out reviews of new products and being the first to "review" a hot new camera body or lens will drive lots of traffic to your site via Google and other search engines. That's a quick way to make your hits go through the roof, but very deceptive.

Then there are all of this loopy comments and advice about things like turn the in-camera saturation all the way up to "improve" the way your photos look.

[Experiment_626]

I think Rockwell's site is just plain weird. Some of it -- like the snippet I quoted at the start of the thread -- seems so over-the-top that I cannot imagine it was meant seriously (even though, as I said, the original page includes a link that would certainly allow someone to send the guy money). Things like this read like The Weekly World News. Then there's the "advice" he gives that is just plain bad, in my opinion -- such as his stated disdain for tripods, which he professes to consider obsolete. To a beginner, that could easily come across as serious advice (and for all I know, it might be intended as such). And then there is solid, good advice mixed in with all the silliness. I think you have to be somewhat experienced with photography -- and with reading and interpreting the Rockwellian language -- to determine what is good advice and what is self-parody. And even then, the way he freely switches back and forth between the two (sometimes I think maybe he's not as good a parody artist as he might imagine, because the line is often hard to discern) lowers the usability of his site.

[Rental01]

That's solid gold. lol

[Rental01]

Weird - I thought I quoted when I posted.

Meh - I was referring to the "Ken Rockwell vs Chuck Norris" quotes.

[henryp]

Ken Rockwell visited B&H in New York City, and B&H made a HUGE deal about it. He gets a VIP tour of B&H, and the B&H folks are groveling all around him.
Seriously? My goodness. Ken came to visit and was treated with courtesy and the deference good manners demand of any host. Whatever you may think of Ken, he was our guest and deserved to be treated as such.

[Rental01]

Seriously? My goodness. Ken came to visit and was treated with courtesy and the deference good manners demand of any host. Whatever you may think of Ken, he was our guest and deserved to be treated as such.
I look at it this way: As a business, if someone who is highly respected in the community that you serve comes to your location, it would behoove you to treat them with the respect that they have built through their work and reputation. For instance, if I were running a warehouse store for racing parts and well respected drag racer (ex. John Force) came to my store, I'd definitely walk him through the whole operation so that he could see it. Not just because he is famous in the community but because I know that many people would respect his opinion if he were to refer to the visit at a later date.

1) It was the kind thing to do
2) It was the right thing to do given his prestige
3) It's just good businesss

[Daisy14'sDH]

It takes know about the guy to understand why it is so funny. Here is a well published parody about the guy:

* Ken Rockwell is the Chuck Norris of photography

* Ken Rockwell's camera has similar settings to ours, except his are: P[erfect] Av[Awesome Priority Tv[Totally Awesome Priority] M[ajestic]

* Ken Rockwell doesn't color correct. He adjusts your world to match his.

* Sure, Ken Rockwell deletes a bad photo or two. Other people call these Pulitzers.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't adjust his DOF, he changes space-time.

* Circle of confusion? You might be confused. Ken Rockwell never is.

* Ken Rockwell doesn't wait for the light when he shoots a landscape - the light waits for him.

* Ken Rockwell never flips his camera in portrait position, he flips the earth

* Ken Rockwell ordered an L-lens from Nikon, and got one.

* Ken Rockwell is the only person to have photographed Jesus; unfortunately he ran out of film and had to use a piece of cloth instead.

* When Ken Rockwell brackets a shot, the three versions of the photo win first place in three different categories

* Before Nikon or Canon releases a camera they go to Ken and they ask him to test them, the best cameras get a Nikon sticker and the less good get a Canon sticker

* Once Ken tested a camera, he said I cant even put Canon on this one,thats how Pentax was born

* Rockwellian policy isn't doublethink - Ken doesn't even need to think once

* Ken Rockwell doesn't use flash ever since the Nagasaki incident.

* Only Ken Rockwell can take pictures of Ken Rockwell; everyone else would just get their film overexposed by the light of his genius

* Ken Rockwell wanted something to distract the lesser photographers, and lo, there were ducks.

* Ken Rockwell is the only one who can take self-portraits of you

* Ken Rockwell's nudes were fully clothed at the time of exposure

* Ken Rockwell once designed a zoom lens. You know it as the Hubble SpaceTelescope.

* When Ken unpacks his CF card, it already has masterpieces on it.

* Rockwell portraits are so lifelike, they have to pay taxes

* On Ken Rockwell's desktop, the Trash Icon is really a link to National Geographic Magazine

* Ken Rockwell spells point-and-shoot "h-a-s-s-e-l-b-l-a-d"

* When Ken Rockwell went digital, National Geographic nearly went out of business because he was no longer physically discarding photos

* For every 10 shots that Ken Rockwell takes, 11 are keepers.

* Ken Rockwell's digital files consist of 0's, 1's AND 2's.

* Ken Rockwell never focus, everything moves into his DoF

* Ken Rockwell's shots are so perfect, Adobe redesigned photoshop for him: all it consists of is a close button.

* The term tripod was coined after his silhouette

* Ken Rockwell never produces awful work, only work too advanced for the viewer

* A certain brand of high-end cameras was named after people noticed the quality was a lot "like a" rockwell

* Ken Rockwell isn't the Chuck Norris of photography; Chuck Norris is the Ken Rockwell of martial arts.

* Ken Rockwell never starts, he continues

I want all of this in my Signature line!!!! I nearly peed myself laughing so hard!!!:happytv:

[Daisy14'sDH]

that's not a parody, it's the bio page he wrote for himself

OMG!!! Thanks I laughed so hard my DW felt compelled to go buy me Depends!!!

[Experiment_626]

He has the same statement at the end of his "preview" of the D7000. I'm shocked he hasn't gone back to add it to all his pages.