A “WANTED” poster that includes a photo of Councilman Tim Leigh trespassing at the Incline has ignited a fight between the man who created the poster and the photographer who snapped the shot.
After photographer Bob Kane saw the poster, he contacted creator Chuck Snow, a local musician who says Leigh should be arrested.
“I would like to make a public apology to Bob Kane, who’s photo of Tim appeared on my poster without permission © 2012 Bob Kane Design Photography,” Snow wrote Friday night on the City Desk blog.
But apparently the apology wasn’t enough.
Kane sent Snow an email Sunday night saying he is “tired of people taking advantage” of his work.
“There has been more buzz about the poster on Facebook but it only mentions you. I know I will never get credit or cash for my work,” he wrote in an email to Snow.
“If you cannot pay me for the photo, please take them back from City Counsel (sic) and everywhere else you have sent them and destroy them!” he wrote.
Snow said he didn’t answer the email because he wanted to “remain polite.”
That was Sunday night.
By early Monday morning, Snow said he “couldn’t resist” and punched back.
“I am not personally on Facebook so I don’t know what’s going on there,” Snow wrote in an email to Kane.
“I posted credits on both articles and apologized. I should also mention that you were on the Incline so you were trespassing as well, so why don’t we just call it even?”
What an example we set for our children: Don’t trespass on other’s property – it against the law… oh, unless you’re a City Councilor…or you want a really good work-out… or, you see everyone else doing it.
Absolute power, once again, shows its ability to corrupt absolutely.
A “wanted” poster is an editorial use of the photo, not a commercial one, so using it may fall under the Fair Use Doctrine, particularly if the photo has already been published elsewhere.
And in any event the photographer would have had to have registered the photo with the Copyright office to get any punitive damages, and he would have to show economic damage to get any award from a court.
Snow is not required to collect the posters.
Go Chuck Go!