By Mickey H. Osterreicher, Esq.

BUFFALO, NY – In two cases that pit the National Geographic Society against a number of freelance photographers, the United States Supreme Court this week refused to grant a petition for certiorari (appeal). That refusal thus let stand a lower court ruling in one of the cases holding that current copyright law permits a publisher to create revisions of existing works and/or to reproduce a collective work in a new format – such as electronically or on a CD-ROM – even if some new material has been added to the product, without permission by (and compensation to) the freelance photographers and/or writers who created the original work.

What makes this matter both confusing and important is that the appeal to the High Court was brought by National Geographic even though it received a favorable ruling on appeal in the 2nd Circuit. Apparently National Geographic had hoped the Supreme Court would hear the matter and thus resolve the conflicting opinion issued in the 11th Circuit (which ruled against National Geographic) in the same controversy brought by different freelance photographers.

The first suit was commenced in federal district court in New York in 1997 by photographers Douglas Faulkner, Louis Psihoyos, and FredWard (Faulkner v. National Geographic Association) after National Geographic produced and sold a 30-disc CD-ROM set called “The Complete National Geographic” (CNG). It was a digital version of all the past issues of National Geographic magazine going back 108 years. The CD-ROMs contained copies of the magazine’s pages exactly as they were published in print, displayed two pages at a time and in the same order as the original magazine, along with a new introduction and a program that allowed users to search for specific content. The second case began in federal district court in Atlanta in 1998 and was commenced by photographer Jeffrey Greenberg (Greenberg v. National Geographic Society, et al) based on the same underlying facts.

In both cases, the plaintiffs alleged that National Geographic violated Section 201c of the Copyright Act because it did not obtain their permission to use these works other than in the original publication. The New York Court found for the defendant, National Geographic, holding that there was no copyright violation because it deemed the CNG compilation to be an allowable revision of the original printed publications in electronic format. The federal district court in Georgia also ruled in favor of National Geographic, relying on the 1997 decision in New York district court in the watershed case of Tasini v. New York Times Co. (see below). The Tasini lower court had held that the re-use of freelance writers’ work on databases and CD-ROMs without their express permission did not constitute a copyright infringement. (The 2nd Circuit would overturn that Tasini decision in 2000.) The rulings in both Faulkner and Greenberg went up for appeal.

Greenberg was heard first. In March 2001, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, GA, reversed the lower court ruling that new content in the CD-ROM (including the introduction and the ability to search) did indeed infringe on the copyright of photographer Greenberg. It held thatNational Geographic had “created a new product, in a new medium, for a new market that far transcends any privilege of revision or other mere reproduction envisioned in the” Copyright Act. With that reversal the 11th Circuit Court sent the case back to the lower court to decide how much Greenberg should be paid in damages. Legal analysts at the time noted that the fact that National Geographic had applied for, and received, a copyright for the CD-ROM – claiming it as new work – figured heavily in the 11th Circuit Court’s written opinion.

In October 2001 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear National Geographic’s appeal of the 11th Circuit’s decision.

Adding to the confusion is that the circuit court Greenberg decision was rendered shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its own decision in Tasini. That case was the result of a suit brought by of the National Writers Union against The New York Times Co., Newsday Inc., Time Inc., Lexis/Nexis, and University Microfilms Inc., claiming copyright violation regarding the electronic reuse of work produced and sold on a freelance basis. In Tasini (as stated above) the 2nd Circuit Court in New York overturned the 1997 federal district court decision by finding that the re-use of freelance writers’ work on databases and CD-ROMs without their express permission constituted a copyright infringement.

The 2nd Circuit in Tasini held that the Copyright Act did not authorize the copying, reproduction and distribution of “articles standing alone and not in context” or “as part of that particular collective work to which the author (originally) contributed” or “as part of … any revision” thereof, or “as part of … any later collective work in the same series.”

After the 2nd Circuit Court’s ruling in favor of the writers, the publishers appealed Tasini to the Supreme Court which in June 2001 upheld the 2nd Circuit’s ruling by a 7-2 majority. That decision meant that in the absence of a written contract, a freelancer automatically retains the electronic rights to their printed work under the Copyright Act of 1976.

It was also a seminal case that distinguished the methods of reproduction (print, microform, electronic database). Whereas microforms "represent a mere conversion of intact periodicals (or revisions of periodicals) from one medium to another," the databases offered users [inTasini] articles in isolation absent their context in intact collective works.

On March 4, 2005, following the same legal labyrinth as Tasini, the 2nd Circuit Court in New York upheld the district court ruling in Faulkner. Judge Ralph K. Winter found in favor of National Geographic because the "transfer of work from one media to another generally does not alter its character for copyright purposes."

This leads to the important distinction between Tasini and the cases of Faulkner and Greenberg. In Tasini the user of a database was presented with the authors’ work just one piece at a time – out of context from how it was originally published on a page, and by itself, as a piece of material returned as the result of a database search, whereas the National Geographic CD-ROM set retains the material’s original presentation page by page while staying in context and in sequence, being a “replica” of the magazine.

Thus it can be suggested that, whereas the holdings in Tasini represent what is not allowable under copyright law, Faulkner sets forth what is allowable. What is a key factor and consistent with the 2nd Circuit Court rulings in both cases is that the focus is on how the materials are “presented to, and perceptible by, the user;” whereas the Greenberg court focused on how National Geographic put its new compilation together (e.g., containing separately copyrightable components, such as a moving image introduction, the digital replica of the magazines and software for search capabilities).

Key to the 2nd Circuit’s decision was their view that the digital pages were displayed to viewers exactly as they had been displayed in print, without changes or modifications, and within the original context of each other, so that they were exact duplicates of the original magazines – and therefore amounted to being no more than a revision.

Conversely, the key to the 11th Circuit’s earlier decision was the fact that they viewed the CD as the original work of a new author (the act of compiling the issues into one venue, and adding new features), and that they were presented in a new medium (electronic instead of in print), and were being sold to a different market, therefore making the set a “new product.”

There are other procedural questions that were dealt with in these cases but it will be interesting to see how these conflicting decisions are squared. Could a new compilation of previously published material be considered an “allowable revision” even though some photographs found in the original version may be blacked out and it also contains additional material? It appears that the determining factor will be how a court applies the standard in determining whether “these changes do not substantially alter the original context.”

In the meantime the U.S. Supreme Court appears to have difficulty in determining its own standards. Part III, Rule 10 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States, in pertinent part, states that:

Review on a writ of certiorari is not a matter of right, but of judicial discretion. A petition for a writ of certiorari will be granted only for compelling reasons. The following, although neither controlling nor fully measuring the Court's discretion, indicate the character of the reasons the Court considers: (a) a United States court of appeals has entered a decision in conflict with the decision of another United States court of appeals on the same important matter . . .

By not hearing these cases, the two Circuit Court rulings leave the plaintiffs with two conflicting legal findings on what is basically the same question of copyright infringement, both involving the very same product, National Geographic’s CD-ROM set. Plaintiffs and attorneys alike had hoped the Supreme Court would see a need to clarify the conflicting rulings and would hear the case. Having the Supreme Court this week refuse to consider the matter leaves it unclear as to where the photographers stand in seeking any resolution in the matter and whether there is any further course of action that can be taken. It also leaves unsettled the question of which standard will apply to previously copyrighted material: no substantial alteration, or new and original compilation?

Mickey H. Osterreicher has been a member of the NPPA since 1972 and is the chair of the Government Media Relations Committee and also a member of the Advocacy Committee. He has been a photojournalist for over 30 years in Buffalo, NY, where he now practices law. Donald Winslow contributed some reporting to this article.

The Society for News Design’s executive director, Elise Burroughs, has issued a Call For Entries for the 27th annual Best Of Newspaper Design competition. The contest is open to all general circulation newspapers – daily or otherwise – including broadsheets, tabloids, and traditional or alternative publications.

Entries must have been published between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2005. Entries from the United States must be received in Syracuse, NY, by January 18, 2006; international entries must be received by January 25, 2006.

Rules for the contest and forms for entering can be viewed, printed, and downloaded from SND’s Web site at www.snd.org. The information is available in English and in Spanish, and in both QuarkXPress and Adobe Acrobat .PDF formats.

Judging of all categories will take place February 11 through 20, 2006, at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, NY. Last year’s contest drew 15,020 entries and yielded 1,074 awards to 190 publications in 37 countries.

Morris, 68, the former chief photographer for The Hutchinson News in Hutchinson, KS, where he grew up and photographed the life of an entire community, died there last week in hospital after suffering a heart attack just days before.

He was with theNewsfor 32 years, from 1953 to 1985, and after Morris retired he opened and ran a photography lab, Jim Morris Lab and Lens. He was a journalism graduate of Hutchinson Community College, a 1955 graduate of Hutchinson High School, and he also spent 30 years in the Kansas Army National Guard. While at the News he had been, over the years, a photo engraver, a graphics director, a photo editor, as well as the chief photographer.

GarySettle, a two-time NPPA Newspaper Photographer of the Year and a past president of NPPA, remembered Morris as both his best friend from childhood and his best man at his wedding more than four decades ago. “We played together when we were kids in Hutchinson when we were 9 or 10 years old. We lived across the street from each other. My father was a serious amateur photographer who taught me and Jim how to develop film and make prints. One summer, my folks and I invited Jim to go with us on a two-week vacation trip to Colorado and Utah. We were about 12 or 13, taking stupid tourist pictures. In high school, we both became photographers for the school newspaper and yearbook. We clowned around a lot.

“When I was a sophomore, Sunday editorFredWulfekuhlergave me a part-time job in the photo lab at what was thenThe Hutchinson News-Herald. Within weeks he also hired Jim in a similar job. After high school, I went off to college then became (Rich)Clarkson'sfirst intern in Topeka. But after high school, Morris stayed full-time at the Hutchinson newspaper. He built his career there, becoming the head photographer for decades, and also the photo-engraver. He won some regional monthly NPPA clip contests and built up a pretty good little photo staff. He hired several good young shooters, includingPeteSouza.”

Souza, a national and international photojournalist for the ChicagoTribuneand former White House photographer for President RonaldReagan during Reagan’s second term, was hired at the Hutchinson News by Morris. “He was my first boss after I left graduate school at Kansas State University. He taught me – the young, over-enthusiastic photojournalist – a few lessons without having to say anything.”

“Not long after I got there, we had a huge fire in the downtown area. There was smoke and flames everywhere, Souza remembers. “Being a young, I tried to get as close to the action as possible. Jim disappeared from scene for a while. I didn't know where he had gone. Later, in the darkroom, I found Jim printing his best pictures. He had gone into a building nearby and talked someone into letting him go up on the roof. The picture he made from there really showed the enormity of the fire, and I realized my pictures from up close didn't tell the story nearly as well. So Jim taught me that Robert Capa wasn't always right.

Settle remembers that Morris took early retirement to open his camera store. “He knew so many people that it became so popular that it drove the other camera stores in town out of business. He never took vacation. His wife (Barbara) and daughter (Teri) helped him out at the store and friends would sometimes hang around. Half the people in town seemed to be his friends.”

Morris was working at the camera store when he was stricken, Settle said. "His heart attack hit him there, while he was shutting down the machines at the end of the day. Barbara was with him. Suddenly finding him on the floor, she called 911 and kept him going until help arrived."

At his funeral Saturday, daughter Terri said that it was at the camera store where she and her father became best friends, spending time together, and that he loved teaching photography and spreading the joy of it to others.

“Jim was a very good guy and a good shooter. That entails a lot. Some people go off to seek fame and fortune; some people choose to stay and have solid careers at home, under the radar, and live satisfying lives doing responsible community journalism,” Settle said. "Jim Morris and I inadvertently discovered photojournalism together, years before we ever heard the word 'photojournalism.' He stayed home; I went off to see the world. I've always considered him an unsung hero."

In addition to his wife and daughter, Morris is survived by a brother, a sister, and one grandchild

.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Twenty college photographers have been named finalists in the November photojournalism competition of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Entries in the first of three journalism competitions were in the categories of portrait/personality and feature.

The annual photojournalism competitions are held in more than 100 member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited journalism programs. 

The top five finalists are:

• First Place, $2,000 award, Chris Detrick, University Of Missouri
• Second Place, $1,500 Award, Dean Knuth, University Of Arizona
• Third Place, $1,000 Award, Jacob Pritchard, University Of Colorado
• Fourth Place, $750 Award, Danny Ghitis, University Of Florida
• Fifth Place, $600 Award, Allen Bryant, Western Kentucky University

The first place winner, Chris Detrick is a Spring 2005 graduate, and consequently is not eligible to participate in the championship round, as pursuant to the program guidelines. As a result, the second through fifth place winners will submit additional entries for the semi-final judging. 

The sixth through tenth place winners are:

• Sixth Place, $500 Award, Christian Hansen, Western Kentucky University
• Seventh Place, $500 Award, Dave Weatherwax, Michigan State University
• Eighth Place, $500 Award, Matt Nager, University Of Colorado
• Ninth Place, $500 Award, Mark Mulligan, University Of Texas, Austin
• Tenth Place, $500 Award, David Calvert, University Of Nevada, Reno

Students who placed among the top 20 and will receive award certificates are:

• J. Carson Day, California State University, Fullerton, Eleventh Place
• Nick Loomis, University Of Iowa, Twelfth Place
• Brian Lehmann, University Of Nebraska - Lincoln, Thirteenth Place
• Samkit Shah, University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Fourteenth Place
• Julia Robinson, San Francisco State University, Fifteenth Place
• Kristopher Kolden, University Of Nebraska - Lincoln, Sixteenth Place Tie
• Lane Christianson, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Sixteenth Place Tie
• Elizabeth Bailey, Ball State University, Eighteenth Place Tie
• Jessica Crossfield, University Of Florida, Eighteenth Place Tie
• Ray M. Jones, University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Twentieth Place Tie
• Anthony Souffle, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Twentieth Place Tie

The University of Colorado placed first in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition with the highest accumulated school points from the first three photo competitions. It is followed by: Western Kentucky University; University of Missouri; University of Florida; University of Arizona; University of Nebraska - Lincoln; Michigan State University; University of Texas, Austin; University of Nevada, Reno; and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN  – The Society of Professional Journalists has announced its call for entries to the Mark of Excellence Awards. The competition strives to recognize and honor the best in collegiate journalism. The deadline for the 2005 awards is January 23, 2006.

The competition presents awards in Breaking News Photography, General News Photography, Feature Photography, Photo Illustration, Sports Photography, Television News Photography, Television Feature Photography, and Television Sports Photography among many other categories that would be of immediate interest to NPPA student members.

The Mark of Excellence awards entrants in 43 categories in print, magazine, radio, television, and online journalism. Heather Porter, Assistant Director of Programs at SPJ, stated in a recent circular that "Eligibility rules require that an entry must have been published in the 2005 calendar year by a student or students studying for an academic degree. Entries are first judged on the regional level. First place entries advance to the national contest. National winners and finalists will be recognized at The 2006 SPJ Convention and National Journalism Conference in Chicago."

For more information, go to http://www.spj.org/awards_moe.asp or eMail SPJ at [email protected] or telephone +1.317.927.8000.

Shawn Montano, director of the NPPA Cutting Edge workshop, announced that the 2006 workshop will be held January 20 and 21, 2006, in Jacksonville, FL. Cutting Edge is an NPPA educational seminar with emphasis on the craft of editing.

Cutting Edge VII: The Chronicles Of Editing will feature as faculty Lou Davis, chief photojournalist for WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, NC;Matt Rafferty, the 2004 Cutting Edge Editor of the Year, who is a video editor for WJW-TV 8 in Cleveland, OH; and Montano. The just-named 2005 Cutting Edge Editor of the Year, Brian Weister, a two-time NPPA Video Editor of the Year - and now the two-time Cutting Edge Editor of the Year - will also be on the faculty.

The host hotel for Cutting Edge VII is the Jacksonville Marriott, 4670 Salisbury Road, with a special NPPA nightly rate of $79.00. Call +1.800.962.9786 and ask for the NPPA rate.

Last year's Cutting Edge was held January 29 in Raleigh-Durham, NC, and featured speakers Weister and Vicki Hildner, a special projects editor at KCNC-TV in Denver. Montano was the 2001 NPPA Television Editor of the Year and works at KCNC-TV.

For more information contact Montano at [email protected].

By Peter Junker

ATLANTA, GA - Michael A. W. Evans, a noted newspaper, magazine, and White House photojournalist and early developer of software systems for cataloging photography collections, died on December 1, 2005, at his home in Atlanta. Mr. Evans succumbed at the age of 61 after a four-year fight against cancer. At the time of his death he was surrounded by his family. Story Evans, his wife, this morning wrote, "The presence of God and the community of our friends sustained him to the very end. For that we will be eternally grateful."

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 at 3:45 p.m. at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, 3098 St. Anne’s Lane, Atlanta, GA.

The child of a Canadian diplomat and a registered nurse who were stationed in Havana during the Cuban revolution and Capetown, South Africa, during the quickening of the apartheid resistance, Evans took an early interest in political philosophy and world events. Among his peers Evans was highly regarded as a complete photographer, with mastery of a broad range of assignments, including daily news, portraiture, documentary photography and sports. To the larger world, his best known shots are the iconic images of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, begun on assignment for Time magazine in 1975, and, later, his revealing record of life and politics behind the scenes of the Reagan Administration.

Evans’ photojournalism career began in Ontario at the Port Hope Evening Guide in 1959, when he was 15. “They paid me two dollars for a photograph and ten cents an inch for the stories I wrote on the [school] football games,” Evans said. “I wrote very long stories.” Evans joined NPPA in August, 1965.

His chosen profession eventually took him to the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, OH, in 1964 and shortly thereafter to The New York Timesand Time magazine. It was John G. Morris, now the eminence gris of picture editors, who brought Mr. Evans to the Times in 1967. Newly arrived at the paper himself, Morris wanted to solidify its photojournalistic preeminence by staffing it with the best and brightest shooters. He had been pursuing Eddie Adams, the veteran Associated Press and magazine photographer whose large body of work included dramatic moments of social unrest and foreign conflict. Adams’ reputation allowed him to flourish as a freelance however, and he declined Morris’s offers. (Adams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize the following year for his photograph of a prisoner execution in South Vietnam.) Evans—10 years Adams’ junior and already amassing an impressive portfolio—was Morris’s other choice. “He was a damned good photographer. I’ve always been proud that he was my first hire,” Morris said.

Donald R. Winslow, Evans’ long-time friend and editor of NewsPhotographer magazine, recently published an appreciation of Evans’ early work in Cleveland and New York, contrasting it with today’s “boring” pictures of staged events, press conferences and posed photo-ops. “They were real pictures,” Winslow wrote, “[like the] picture from a city hall meeting where a firefighters’ union representative, at the bargaining table, pounds a blurred fist on the table in frustration with the lack of progress in the labor negotiations. That picture didn’t just happen during a photo opportunity or at a press conference. It happened because [Evans] spent hours waiting and watching for it.”

"Mike Evans was a skilled photographer, but his genius was storytelling,” Winslow said at Evans’ passing. “Mike took the potential for telling stories with pictures to a new level. You can see his eye and his intellect in picture after picture and his integrity in the choices he made. You see him thinking, 'What is important here and how will my picture tell the truth about it?'"

For Time, Evans was on the road covering the Reagan campaign solidly from late August, 1979, until Christmas, 1980. When Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, Evans was offered a position as personal photographer to the new President. He would be independent of the White House press office and given unparalleled access to the President. Although he had more lucrative opportunities, he accepted the offer and spent the next four years making a pictorial record of the administration and its chief executive. Lois Romano, a staff writer at TheWashington Post aptly described Evans’ position in 1985 as “a job that requires him to be both ubiquitous and invisible.”

Evans also led a small team of photographers and picture editors, oversaw a photo lab in the White House basement, and occasionally interceded with administration officials on behalf of his colleagues in the media.

In 1982 Evans established “The Portrait Project,” a nonprofit for which he assumed the audacious task of photographing all the individuals he considered to be the era’s movers and shakers in Washington. In the end, 595 subjects agreed to sit for their portraits, an unpartisan selection that included the Chief Justice, members of Congress and socialites as well as journalists, a secretary, and a senior Capitol janitor. The project culminated in an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution titled People and Power: Portraits from the Federal Village and a book of the same name. Evans said he made an explicit egalitarian statement in titling the project People and Power, not in, of, or with power, and that he wanted to preserve a “geological record” of government in a single moment of time for future citizens. Some of the show’s prints are in the Library of Congress while the negatives are now housed in the National Archives.

George Will noted the equalizing urge behind People and Power, writing, "Representative governments are, well, awfully representative, at least in this sense: They are made up of folks who look like and are like most other folks. [Evans’] portraits testify, I think, to democracies' pleasantness."

In Washington, Evans met his future spouse, Story Shem, a former Carter administration aide and founding partner of Arrive, a Washington communications firm with an all-woman staff. One of Arrive’s clients was Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who was making his first visit to the U.S. to meet the President.

Evans promptly enlisted Shem to help organize his ambitious portrait project and coax a number of notable holdouts to schedule photo sessions. The couple married in 1983 and moved to Atlanta where Michael briefly served as photography editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Evans stopped taking pictures but stayed deeply involved in advancing the profession for new generations of photographers. Seeing a vast unmet need for efficiently conserving and cataloging photo archives, Evans developed proprietary software with a system of coding photographs that enabled speedy digital searches of large collections. Getty Press, of the J. Paul Getty Museum, was among his clients. Another was ZUMA Press, the independent picture agency and wire service that Evans served as chief technology officer. (ZUMA Press represents Evans’ photo collection.)

In addition to his wife, Story, Evans is survived by six children, two brothers, and a sister. Oldest son Ewen Riddell lives in Raleigh, NC; son Drew Evans lives in Los Angeles, CA; daughter Megan Evanslives in Toronto; daughter Amanda Evans lives in Monterey, CA; daughter Abigail Evans is at Davidson College in Davidson, NC; andMadeleine Evans lives at home in Atlanta. Evans' sisters, EsmeComfort and Judy Evans, and his brother, Tony Evans, reside in Canada. In Atlanta, the Evans family is active in St. Anne's Episcopal parish in the Buckhead neighborhood. Friends of the family in Georgia remember Michael as a proud and supportive parent, an insatiable reader, and an especially well-informed raconteur with an unflagging sense of curiosity.

While Evans’ newspaper work, portrait project, and software company required countless hours of persistent effort, he shot his most celebrated photograph while engaged in informal banter with his subject in the hills of Santa Barbara, CA. It is the image that has come to represent Ronald Reagan to many Americans: the cowboy with a working man’s tan, lined face and well-worn hat; the affecting, slightly crooked smile and confident, clear eyes that belied both his age and his political zeal. The picture rivals Matthew Brady’s image of Abraham Lincoln’s ethereal, weary, wartime gaze as one of the most recognized in the history of presidential portraiture. It is so quintessentially Reagan that at the time of the former President’s death it became the only photograph to be used as the cover of Time, Newsweek, and People magazines in the same week. Evans sometimes referred to it as “the picture.”

Winslow reflected on a telling aspect of “the picture’s” ascension to emblematic status: Evans made it when Reagan was still considered by many a fringe player in his party — a retired actor with a following in his home state of California, but an also-ran to President Gerald Ford in the Republican primaries. Despite the fact that his editors’ interest in Reagan was at first limited to a one-day assignment, Evans saw something intriguing in his subject. Following a hunch about Reagan’s appeal, he stayed at the ranch beyond the term of his magazine assignment. He was on his own time when he took the photo that captured the character and image of a man the world would soon come to know. The picture continues to be the most appreciated among many examples of Michael Evans’ knack of foresight and his skill as a storyteller.

Donations may be made to the Michael Evans Memorial Library Fund at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, to the Arts and Photography programs at Davidson College, to the Woodward Academy, or to Hospice Atlanta.

The National Press Photographer Association's national secretary Sean D. Elliot has announced results of a month-long November election to select directors and associate directors for Regions 3, 5, 9 and 11. Newly elected officers will begin their terms on January 1, 2006.

Elliot said he called candidates to inform them of results and to thank them for running, encouraging candidates who ran without winning to remain active in NPPA. Elliot also reported that Region 3 tallied the highest voter turnout, and that he will have a more complete report on the election for the board as time permits.

In Region 3, Tom Costello was elected regional director with 110 votes against candidates Ron Soliman and Dylan Moore. Linda Epsteinwas elected associate director with 115 votes against candidate Dylan Moore.

In Region 5, Chris Birks was elected regional director with 56 votes against candidate Mike Borland, and Gregory Morley was elected associate director with 46 votes against candidate Nathan Pier.

In Region 9, Pete Soby was elected regional director with 45 votes against candidate Mel Stone, and Ray Meints was elected associate director with 49 votes against candidate Craig Moore.

In Region 11, Russ Kendall was elected regional director with 43 votes against candidate Adam Amato, and Kurt Austin was elected associate director with 41 votes against candidates Bill Goetz and Jim Lavrakas.

Birks, Morley, and Soby are new to the board, while Costello, Epstein, Meints, Kendall, and Austin have served previously as directors, associate directors, or in other national posts.

Because of the extensive coverage of Hurricane Katrina, there were added categories for the 3rd Quarter Best Use of Photography contest.

 There is precedence for this: categories were added for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and for 9/11 coverage in 2001. If you have any questions, callMarkEdelsonat +1.561.820,4490 or eMail him at [email protected].

2005 3rd Quarter BUP Results

Sports, Picture Page, and Katrina Multiple-page entrieswere judged at Ohio University School of Communication by faculty members Stan Alost, Bill Schneider, Larry Hamel-Lambert, Terence Oliver, Julie Elman, Bruce Strong, and Marcy Nighswander.

Multiple-page and Katrina 1A entrieswere judged at the Detroit Free Press by Nancy Andrews, Rose Ann McKean, Jessica Trevino, William Archie, and Mandi Wright.

News, Feature, and Katrina single page (other than 1A) entrieswere judged at Getty Images in New York by Mike Sargent, Chris Hondros, Mario Tama, Spencer Platt, Mike Heiman, Sandy Ciric, Craig Allen, Preston Rescigno, and Beth A. Keiser.

NEWS:

1st: Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2005
“Holding out until the end"
Steve Stroud, Alan Hagman, Brian Vander Brug and Michael Whitley
Judges’ comments: Very good use of staff work... takes a complicated story and distills it into a very accessible package. Overall the strongest category of the three we judged. Busy news month and lots of competition for limited space.

2nd:The Orlando Sentinel, July 27, 2005
"Good luck, Godspeed"
Team
Judges’ comments: Strong design and use of single dominant image.

3rd:The Hartford Courant, August 24, 2005,
"In rural Texas, war debate gathers steam"
Bruce Moyer, Suzette Moyer, L.M. Otero (AP) and Joe Raedle (Getty)
Judges’ comments: Mix of reaction to this layout, some felt strongly that it was a very good attempt to be different and challenge the traditional A1 layout.

HM:Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 4th, 2005,
"War hits Ohio hard"
Team

HM:Orlando Sentinel, July 8th, 2005,
"We shall prevail"
Team

HM:The Tacoma News Tribune, July 3rd, 2005,
"Tall ships in Tacoma"
Janet Jensen, Jeremy Harrison, Craig Sailor and Drew Perine

HM:The Concord Monitor, July 5th, 2005,
"Underwater world"
Elyse Butler, Dan Habib

FEATURE:

1st:Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2005,

"The Sierra Surfers"
Hal Wells, Kirk McKoy, Megan Spelman, Wes Bausmith
Judges’ comments: Great page, very bold use of images and layout

2nd:The Virginian Pilot, September 5, 2005,

“The hands of labor"
Team
Judges’ comments: Strong use of white space and letting the page be centered on portraits that do not use the subjects face..

3rd:Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2005,

“There's a real art to their crafts"
Iris Schneider, Steve Banks, Al Schaben
Judges’ comments: Interesting use of light on a subject that is difficult to illustrate.

HM:The Orlando Sentinel, September 4, 2005,

“Uptown elan"
Team

HM:Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2005,

“Colorado's supersized sandbox"
Richard Derk, Ann Moonen, Hal Stoelzle

PICTURE PAGE:

1st:The Orlando Sentinel, July 27, 2005,
"Shuttle Launch"
Bill Sikes, Tom Burton, Lee Fiedler, Kenneth D. Lyons, Hilda M. Perez
Judges’ comments: This package worked well for the readers of this paper. It broadened the understanding of the scope of the launch of the shuttle across the country. In addition, it lead with the image that was different and at the same time harked back to the images of the Challenger launch. The complaints were that the crops sometimes felt as if they were driven by the design. Overall, though, it was a good page that made use of multiple sources.

2nd:The Virginian Pilot, August 14, 2005,
"Haiku"
Team
Judges’ comments: This page drew mixed reviews. Ultimately, it was recognized because the concept was well seen and executed. The variety in the images created from different lens use helped move the reader through the package.

3rd:The Orlando Sentinel, July 8, 2005,
"London Bombing"
Bill Sikes, Tom Burton, Lee Fiedler, Kenneth D. Lyons, Hilda M. Perez
Judges’ comments: This was a surprising devotion of resources to an event without a direct local connection. How bold of them to give an international story so much space. Yet, in the attempt to include all aspects of the event, the secondary images became week and repetitive.

HM:TheOregonian, August 14, 2005,
"Fair Play in Clark County"
Jamie Francis, Mike Davis, Beth Weismann, Chris Hun and Nancy Casey
Judges’ comments: There were some wonderful moments and images in this package. Most of the images were well seen. There was considerable debate over whether or not some of the images had been cropped to fit a design. Even if they weren’t, the placement and design oozed with that perception.

SPORTS:

1st:The Palm BeachPost, July 23, 2005,
"Still the One"
Mark Edelson, Getty Images and The Associated Press, Chris Rukan, Nick Moschella
Judges’ comments: This was by far the best page. It broke with a traditional dominant image approach and was successful. While some of the judges cringed at the design-driven presentation, we all agreed that the page attracted attention, and then rewarded readers with images that compelled, informed, and entertained. One of the reasons this page worked is that the images seemed created in the extreme horizontal format. We have seen the same design strategy applied (a bunch now) in other situations where the images lose value and information. Overall, the category included some very good pages. There were strong images played well for readers, and it was clear that picture editors were involved in making the visual presentation communicate engaging and pertinent information. For the others, the shortcoming that crippled most entries was image redundancy, second only to poor images played large.

2nd:Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 9, 2005
“Tribe wild card? Power"
Team
Judges’ comments: Here was an example of how images and text work well together. Beyond the headline and the dominant image, the other images on the page were played at an appropriate size to complete their supporting function.

3rd:The Virginian Pilot, August 22, 2005,
"Nascar"
Team
Judges’ comments: This was a bold choice for a picture editor. The atypical NASCAR winner image attracted attention and provided a good entry point that the other images could build on. The area of the page that bothered the judges most, was the risky multi-image presentation at the top of the page that needed some way to signal readers that those images were not connected to the images below.

MULTIPLE PAGE:

1st:The Hartford Courant, September 4, 2005,
"Crimes Against us"
Bruce Moyer, Melanie Shaffer and Adam Nadel
Judges' comments: After looking at so many entries, when we came across the striking pages of "crimes against us: THE HORRORS OF WAR AND GENOCIDE AGAINST PEOPLES OF THE WORLD... IN THEIR OWN WORDS," we immediately stopped and took notice. And, we think readers would probably have the same reaction.
The pictures were striking in their simplicity, clean and evocative. The design and typography matched the content to create a soulful experience of this weighty topic. The use of negative space in the design complimented the use of space in the images.

2nd:Dallas Morning News, July 24, 2005,
"Little rest for the homeless"
Mona Reeder, Leslie White and Cindy Smith
Judges' comments: This package on homeless teens showed us scenes we didn't expect to see, such as the overall of the overcrowding at a shelter and the intimacy of being there at a fight. An important topic and well executed.

3rd:The Palm Beach Post, Sept 2005,
"Hurricane Rita"
Team
Judges' comments: The Post produced pages with an edit that gave variety to the images and storytelling --- moving from tight and emotional to wide and informational. It was a good mix on a big news story and combined well with graphics and headlines.

HM:The Gainesville Sun, September 2005,
"Gator Vision"
Brian Kratzer, Missi Koenigsberg and staff
Judges' comments: We loved the every game is our Super Bowl kind of treatment that Gainesville gives the reader for Gator coverage. Though we do wonder why the section comes out on Monday not Sunday, even the Georgia Bulldog in the group had to say hats off to the efforts. Gainesville was able to run some of those pictures you just don't see in sports coverage scenes like the fans in a variety of ways, off the field moments and the team arriving on the field for play - All these images add to the pageantry of the game and it's something papers often miss with game coverage.

HM:The Naples Daily News, July 24, 2005,
"Havana"
Eric Strachan and Darron Silva
Judges' comments: The photography and layout was beautiful, with nice subtle moments and good choice of images... it made us want to go to Havana. It's only an HM because we didn't feel like it moved the Havana story beyond the expected.

HM:The Concord Monitor, July 24, 2005,
"Pictures from an institution"
Dan Habib, Lori Duff, Danielle Kronk
Judges'comments: Here's one where we wanted to reward the initiative to photograph an abandoned building in such an artful way, but we thought the design hurt the package. The pictures were crammed together, and not that each needed a cutline, but each needed space to breathe and there needed to be some type of information on the jump page.

KATRINA FRONT PAGES:

1st:The Orlando Sentinel, August 31, 2005
Team
Judges’ comments: Katrina was such a huge story in so many ways, we found the single photo display on those first days did not allow the page to cover the entire scope of the story. We were drawn first to those pages that attempted to give more than one image as an entry point and tell more than one aspect of the story. We felt this Orlando page did it best, and we liked leading with the poignant Eric Gay image that so many papers used. It was very interesting to see the mix of the same pictures among papers with some having their own staff images to use as well. We ended up organizing the pages by day so we could compare apples to apples then the apples to the oranges.

2nd:San Antonio Express-News, September 4, 2005
Doug Sehres, Anita Baca, Joe Barrera Jr., Ron Jaap
Judges’ comments: Now almost a week out. This page gave emotion and information and we think really succeeded with a thoughtful and simple layout that was clean to read and highlighted the three images that combined told the story.

3rd:Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2005
Colin Crawford, Mary Cooney, Steve Stroud and Julie Rogers
Judges’ comments: The page told the dual stories of the day with two compelling pictures. We also applaud the Times' effort to give the Katrina story the presence it had and getting other story subjects on the page.

HM:Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 1, 2005
Team

HM:The Oregonian, August 31, 2005
Patty Reksten, Randy Rasmussen, Mark Friesen

HM:The Houston Chronicle, August 30, 2005
Team

HM:The Raleigh News & Observer, September 5, 2005
Kevin Keister, Ethan Hyman, Chuck Liddy, staff

HM:The Houston Chronicle, September 18, 2005
Team

KATRINA SINGLE PAGES (OTHER THAN FRONTS):

1st:Naples Daily News, August 31, 2005
“Slowly, gradually, we will recover"
Eric Strachan, Associated Press and Cox News Service photos
Judges’ comments: Smart News page with a definite awareness of how pictures play against each other on a page.

2nd:Dallas Morning News, September 4, 2005
"Fear, chaos and grief"
Team
Judges’ comments: Very strong use of graphic image carries double truck. You can almost feel yourself hovering over the city.

3rd:Dallas Morning News, September 11, 2005,
"There's nothing here for me anymore"
Team
Judges’ comments: Very nice story that is told with compassion by the photographer.

HM:Dallas Morning News, September 18, 2005,
"Aerials"
Team

HM:Dallas Morning News, August 31, 2005,
"It's just heartbreaking"
Team

KATRINA MULTIPLE PAGES:

1st:Los Angeles Times, August 30 - September 13, 2005
Team
Judges’ comments:This entrydid a good job of covering the wide scope of destruction, the human cost of the catastrophe, and took the reader into the mayhem. While there were some redundancies, and the images did not pair as well as in other entries, the types of images and the way they were presented provided something for the Los Angeles Times' readers that others did not get. This category drew the most debate. For starters, the entries were large and seemed to lack cohesion. Second, the inclusion of some presentations that were cumulative (A week in pictures) was hard to measure against the daily grind entrees. In the end, we went with the presentation that we felt took the readers into the incredible destruction.

2nd:The Palm Beach Post, August 26 - September 18, 2005
Team
Judges’ comments: This entry did a much better job of grouping images in ways that added value to the images seen together. Yet, one of the killer drawbacks was use of the cropped, extreme horizontal images that were more about design than communication.

3rd:Dallas Morning News, August 30 - September 8, 2005
Team
Judges’ comments: There was considerable debate and mixed opinion between this entry and the eight-page special section that the San Jose Mercury News entered that received an honorable mention. In the end, the work on the daily paper won over the efforts at the end of the week. One of the weaknesses of this entry was the front-page image that captured neither numbers of people effected, nor the scope of the destruction. It did convey danger and the depth of the flooding.

HM:San Jose Mercury News, September 4, 2005
Team
Judges’ comments: This package of images was very well done and represents a financial commitment for their readers that is unexpected. As a package, it helped their readers understand the scope of the event in a way that was of real value. The editing gave each image the space and placement that it needed to communicate, and it resisted the urge to be repetitive.

1st quarter 2005 BUP results

2nd quarter 2005 BUP results

Comments? Corrections? More information? Next quarter's deadline? Contact BUP contest chair Mark Edelson at [email protected].

By Sedda Kreabs

LOS ANGELES - The NCAA has determined that use of student athlete images within portfolios posted on theWeb site SportsShooter.com constitutes an editorial use, and therefore does not threaten a player’s NCAA amateur eligibility status.

The athletic communications director at Syracuse University had raised the question in recent weeks after a student photojournalist and other professionals had posted portfolio photographs from recent Syracuse football games within their paid Web space on SportsShooter.com. Photojournalists who subscribe to the site post their photography to obtain peer critiques and recommendations for freelance jobs.

“It’s pretty hard to view SportsShooter.com in any other way but in an editorial light,” said Kirk Irwin, a Syracuse graduate student who had been asked to remove his portfolio shots of Syracuse football action from the site. “To hear that the NCAA also sees it as editorial usage wasn’t surprising - but I’m glad that it’s finally resolved.”

Susan Edson, director of athletic communications at Syracuse University, had threatened to revoke a photography credential issued to the school’s newspaper and to a local newspaper if staff photographers didn't remove images posted to a member portfolio area on SportsShooter.com. She cited concerns that the images were being used commercially on the Web site, and a fear that their use could affect the privacy and NCAA standing of the Syracuse athletes who were pictured.

“We’re all happy that we were able to come to a conclusion that worked for everybody,” Edson told News Photographer magazine today, after the NCAA’s decision was announced.

Edson’s initial concerns were based in NCAA rule 15.5.2.2 stating that to retain a student athlete’s eligibility, the player or his or her institution must take steps to stop the publication of the athlete’s name or picture “on commercial items (e.g. shirts, sweatshirts, serving trays, playing cards, posters or is used to promote a commercial product sold by an individual or agency without the student-athlete's knowledge or permission.) … Such steps are not required in cases in which a student-athlete's photograph is sold by an individual or agency (e.g., private photographer, news agency) for private use.”

At a meeting before the Thanksgiving holiday, Edson met with photographer Irwin, professors from the university, other athletic communications staff, and NPPA chapter representative Angela Baldridge to discuss the matter. The group agreed to credit images made of Syracuse athletes with a readable watermark embedded into the original image, pending the NCAA decision on whether image use on the site was seen as commercial or editorial. The embedded credit would include the photographer’s name and the credentialing publication’s name.

Mandatory crediting of images as a term of use is a longstanding practice frequently used within the industry, however, requiring mandatory credit text to appear within the image is a new development in the rights and copyright arena.

“We asked that the students do that — both The Daily Orange and the Newhouse students — and the photography professors seemed to think it’s a good idea,” Edson said about the watermark credit. “It also protects the student photographers’ rights and copyrights to the photograph. It also gives us help in the issue of the freelance photography and the space on the sidelines.”

The Syracuse athletic communications department issues credentials for events in the Carrier Dome only to media outlets due to space limitations on the sidelines. Freelancers requesting credentials for shooting “on spec” or only to enhance their portfolios are frequently turned down.

A freelancer who had been denied a credential had initially brought the question of Carrier Dome access to the athletic department in this case, after seeing Syracuse images shot on a staff media outlet credential in SportsShooter.com portfolios on the site, and believing them to be freelance work.

“One of the problems was that the athletic department was getting (credential) requests from local freelancers, and (crediting the publication in online images) shows that I’m credentialed through that outlet as opposed to some freelancer shooting for myself,” Irwin explained.

Irwin says that compromising his portfolio images by embedding credit watermarks is not an ideal solution, but he is relieved that he can restore his online portfolio at SportsShooter.com.

“It’s a tough thing right now,” Irwin said. “In a sense (the watermark credit) does bring a resolution to it. It’s not 100 percent favorable; it’s not the best outcome I would have chosen… But it’s better than where we were when we started, that’s for sure,” he said.

Please see these earlier, related stories: Syracuse University's Credential Threat Raises Copyright Ownership Questions; and College Athletics v. Photojournalists, A Matchup Of Property Rights.