98588937
submission
Unhappy Windows User writes:
An Australian man, when checked by a ticket inspector, claimed his smartcard was implanted in his hand. He took the case to court and lost; the fine and legal fees add up to AUD 1220 (USD 950). The man, who self-identifies as a biohacker and is a member of the Science Party, accepts the ruling but states that it won't discourage him from further biohacking. He claimed he was ahead of the law. The prosecution argued that, by cutting the chip out of the card, the ticket was invalidated. It is not clear from the article whether the NFC chip was working correctly and could be read by the inspector, or not.
83123125
submission
Unhappy Windows User writes:
An Austrian photographer was contracted by the luxury Sofitel in Vienna to photograph the bar with an amazing view over the skyline. He was paid for his time (â4200) and arranged a three year internal usage contract for the photos. After the contract expired, he still found his photos being used — on external sites too. He is now suing for â2million, based on each individual usage.
My question is: Is this the real market value of his work? There is nothing particularly creative or spectacular about his contribution — any competent photographer could have done the same. I know art galleries often charge high amounts for reprints of their work by controlling access to who gets to photograph it under which conditions. It seems like the largest economic contribution to the work was from Sofitel, who allowed access to the property and closed it to customers.
I don't have any issue in a photographer wanting to be paid fairly for his work, and asking for perhaps double or treble the original price for the breach of contract to match what an unlimited license would have costed. After all, with this money they could have employed a professional for a month and automatically obtained full rights to the work.
Any other competent photographer could have done the job just as well (and perhaps have done a better job on correcting the pincushion distortion!), but it seems like this guy is trying to take advantage of an oversight by a large corporation, never to have to work again.
What do you think?
