Oh, also... comprehension fail; I wasn't talking about taking a picture of a meal or a building, go read it again. Derp.

As a photographer who has spent years honing his skills, fuck you.

"We're gonna sentence you to speak at 14 places you have to drive to, but we're taking away your right to drive, so we'll see you back here next month to discuss new charges for skipping out on your community service." Asshole. I agree, he should lose his ability to drive, in lieu of the community service; or maybe he showed remorse for his severe fuckup and, like people do, learned that he shouldn't fucking do that again?

I can get on board with either, or both, of those ideas.

As I said, a definite revocation of his license in lieu of the community service. However, since he was sentenced to carry out the community service, it would have been inappropriate to revoke his license.

Ok, the fines should have maybe been much MUCH higher, that much I definitely agree with. However, I don't see a problem with him being allowed to keep his license given that he has been ordered to carry out community service at locations that are likely outiside any reasonable walking distance from his residence; were he not ordered to perform this community service, I'd say he should lose his license for somewhere between 1 and 5 years, to be determined by a jury who spent enough time in the courtroom with him to be able to base that duration on his demeanor and whether or not he showed any genuine remorse during the trial (e.g. longer if it seems like he'll do it again). I don't think this was a slap on the wrist; it would be unusually unfair (therefore falling under cruel and unusual punishment) to expect him to speak at schools he can't get to (not every school is within range of public transportatio aside from school busses which many districts now also don't have; and he, himself, may live outside the reach of public transportation). Again, the fines should have been much, much higher; unless, of course, he doesn't have tons of money and they want to leave him with enough cash for gas to get to those schools they're ordering him to speak at. I don't know enough about his financial situation to speak as to the appropriateness of the fines.

I took the photo, I didn't copy the structure or the meal. If I had copied a structure in exact detail, I would expect to be sued. As for the meal, the written form of a recipe can be protected by copyright, but the finished product is an artistic work of its own right; much like the written lyrics and music to a song can be protected by copyright, but it's perfectly legal to perform a cover of someone else's song, since that performance is a separate artistic work.

This b***h honestly reminds me of my ex, who studied criminilogy and thought that put her on a higher tier than everyone else.

She now works at an outsourced call center, taking calls for an insurance company. She's been there, full time, for over four years now and her student loans from the one year she actually attended calsses, part time, still outweigh the total of her gross income from this job.

I'd feel bad for her if she wasn't a stuck-up b***h. Instead, I feel bad for her daughter.

It also seems that he would have been perfectly happy to receive an email asking for permission to use the image on a nonprofit site. He likely would have just asked for a proper citation in the footer or some other credit for the photo. It's simple things like this that, done prior to simply taking someone's work, garner a lot of good will, but, done after you've been caught, buy you nothing.

^-- This.