I’ve been advised, by a source with no reason to lie about such things, that some quite draconian fees have been instituted for the coverage of Carnival in 2013.
These fees break out as follows in T&T cash money as the unsuited thugs say…
NCC Fees: Personal use - $600.00, Commercial use - $800.00
Additional National Carnival Bandleader’s Association (NCBA) fees for coverage of costumed bands and individuals: personal use - $5,900.00, commercial use - $10,000.00 (permits two years of local usage). For international commercial usage for U.K. and Europe add $3,500.00. for international commercial usage for the US, add $3,000.00.
It’s unclear what rights “commercial usage” covers. That’s very specific terminology in photographic licensing and these terms would, if the NCBA understands what they are talking about here, allow a photographer to cover Carnival and sell it to, say, Prada for an advertising campaign in the US and Europe.
If that’s the case, $16,500 is a steal of a deal.
I suspect, however, that this isn’t what this Axis of Copyright has in mind.The NCC/NCBA/TUCO/Pan Trinbago coalition of shortsightedness has tended to see “commercial usage” as magazines offered for sale and prints sold in a photographic outlet, neither of which is particularly commercial or profitable and those fees applied to magazines could stand some testing in court.
The absurdity of charging for the documentation of a national festival isn’t something that photographers have been railing out only recently. In this interview with Noel Norton, he laments the fees charged more than 20 years ago which he paid every year in order to continue his work recording the national festival.
I witnessed begging expeditions by these same Carnival stakeholders to Norton’s studio to get access to images for one project or another, requests that the normally stern Mary Norton would always try to accommodate. Both of the Nortons photographed Carnival because they really loved this country and wanted to do their part to participate in its development.
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why are u all surprised
carnival is bakkanal
When I saw the Dimanche Gras show and who were performing I suspected something like this had happened. I agree with all expressed opinions. In my humble opinion this is the "craziest" idea yet by the carnival organizations, and was not well thought out, especially for Parade of the bands. Will they compensate the masqueraders for their being photographed, did they receive waivers for publishing pictures, are they going to be immune from lawsuits for the unlawful use of photos of wining women if the pictures move from the purchased users to the wider world etc etc. Oy! there are so many issues with this the latest ideas above all with the re-shaping of a national festival into a money gram. I think with deeper thinking there is a way to do something like this without compromising the archiving of our cultural forms. I hope this is simply a glitch in a more sensible sustainable move .