A bit of a giggle

What is happening at your local tober? Who has the best waltzer? What new rides have visited your area? This is the place to post your fairground messages.

Moderator: dave771

A bit of a giggle

Postby Strongbow55 » 24 Jul 2007, 01:30

We decided to have a little fun at the weekend after suffering many washouts this summer and hardly earning the deisel or the rent at some places
while the happy snappers filled the ground (photographers taking pics not spending)
we all decided to have signs saying copyright of the machine owner not the photographer it may be your camera but its my machine
this upset some of the happy snappers
but you see machine photographs everywhere on the internet with the photographers name emblazoned all over it as copyright so and so
usually on the cab of a lorry so it seems as it belongs to them or on a pay box
they sleep in nice warm beds and dont usually get their hands dirty usually dont spend money at a fair work 9 til 5 monday to friday and like to know everything about your life LOL
many would rather take pictures of you struggling to get off a ground or on a ground or struggle to build up in adverse weather rather than to offer you a hand
some do and they are the folks who have grafted a gaff before settling down
but the majority stand there watching you with wellies camera anorak and rucksack
and have the ordasity of posting a pic of your equiptment for all to see on the internet as their copyright
its time to bite back LOL

then take pics of you when you are quiet
I could give some examples but I wont :D
Strongbow55
 
Posts: 195
Joined: 27 May 2006, 00:40
Location: Sittingbourne

Postby Gary » 24 Jul 2007, 08:06

Behind your fun, I see your point Strongbow.

It must be very fustrating.

The subject of copyright is a grey area and I don't pretend to know anything more about it than the next person.

My understanding is that the copyright of any photographs belong to the person taking the pictures.. unless of course the image taken includes a trade mark or something that is copyrighted itself when permission has to be sought somewhere along the line??

I will stand corrected and hope someone can shed more light on this subject that is a minefield.

Cheers

Gary
Please pass through the turnstiles if you are riding again.
Gary
 
Posts: 537
Joined: 26 Jan 2003, 21:45
Location: St Helens

Postby EAS » 24 Jul 2007, 09:25

I'm afraid that taking a pic of something happening in a public place is all fair game - the pic is the copyright of the person who created it, although trying to prevent anyone stealing the image from the internet and re-using it may not be too easy.
User avatar
EAS
 
Posts: 1886
Joined: 18 Sep 2006, 09:09
Location: North

Postby RJW » 25 Jul 2007, 14:08

Hi Strongbow

Well - I hope you had fun with your copyright signs. I can see why you might get miffed at people taking pictures of your machines and putting them online with their copyright notices while not spending a penny on the rides, especially when you are hard at work building up or pulling down with people taking pictures of you at work.

The problem I see is that you can't really have it both ways. The life of a showman is in the public arena, as most fairs take place on public land with unrestricted access to the general public. The rides that attract the most attention are those that are the most impressive to look at, be that due to a great lighting display, some top-class airbrush work or some well-preserved Fred Fowle decor.

These, of course, are the rides that people will also want to take photographs of - which I'd be taking as a major compliment!

Enthusiasts are fascinated by all aspects of the fair, including the building up of rides - I recently bought the "Building up the Supersonic Skid" DVD as this is one of my favourite rides and I used to watch the skid being built up for the local fair when I was a kid. The film was fascinating to watch, and it brought back many good memories.

I never once offered to help - mainly because I wouldn't have the faintest idea what to do, but also because I got the distinct impression that I'd be told to beggar off if I did.

When it comes to the happy snappers - there were plenty of those when I was riding Jimmy Bowery's fantastic Skid at Cambridge Midsummer Fair. Looking at them, it was pretty clear that most weren't riding because their doctors wouldn't approve. So many new rides these days have the excessive warning signs - "This ride is rough and boisterous and NOT FOR WIMPS" - so people with doubts over their health are probably going to think twice. I'm probably entering the "doctor says no" phase in the next decade - am I to stop visiting and enjoying fairs as a result? I could see myself in those happy snappers - obviously delighted to see a classic ride on the road, keen to get some decent photographs to replace the few crap pictures they took with their old cameras in their younger days and probably wishing that their dicky ticker or bad back wasn't stopping them from reliving their youth.

Why did I go to the Midsummer Fair? Because I found out - through an enthusiast's Website - that the Skid would be there (and there were some pictures to boot!).

The ride owners seldom let people know where their rides will be - other than on certain sites that like deleting posts from non-showmen - and it is often through word-of-Website that you get to find out these things before the actual event.

Anyhow - enough waffle from me! How about a few solutions?

    It's pretty easy to find out who owns a particular Website - drop them an e-mail and ask them to remove the pictures you object to, or ask them to make sure that they add your name as the owner of the ride;

    Get some detailed photographs taken of your rides and sell them as prints or on a CD-Rom at the paybox of the ride. You could include some "behind the scenes" shots that no happy snapper could ever get, and many enthusiasts would love to buy (including me!).

    Get a decent Website together and sell the pictures online - PayPal will do all the hard work for you. Then you can put your own copyright message on the pictures! :-D

    When you see a happy snapper, go up to them, introduce yourself and have a chat. If they are true enthusiasts, they'll love that - then give them a business card and ask them to credit you as the ride owner.

    It could be that people who are unable to ride might want to show their appreciation in other ways - PayPal could also let people donate online - you could have a page that outlines the costs of keeping a vintage ride on the road and people could choose something concrete to donate for.


Most of us have some choice in what we do for a living, and if it is something that other people find interesting, then I'm afraid that you'll get other people wanting to watch you doing it.

Hope the rest of the season is more successful, Strongbow, and if you want any help in getting your Website online - or adding some dosh-earning functionality added to an existing site - I'll do it for you FOC!

Cheers,

Rob
RJW
 
Posts: 22
Joined: 19 Jan 2006, 23:19

Postby miniadventure05 » 26 Jul 2007, 19:46

Strongbow talks a load of rubbish, do people realise he is not even a showman? But runs a pub.... yeah he has owned rides etc. but just a man with cash to through around and pretend he is something he's not.

All this talk about photos is also rubbish, i'm sure he once was an enthusiast for the business and took pictures himself.

Sorry to sound rude, I have been reading these posts so long and it has just wound me up!

Come back to the real world Strongbow, Im sure your mean no harm just being who you are and not something else.
miniadventure05
 
Posts: 1
Joined: 26 Jul 2007, 19:42

Postby Strongbow55 » 27 Jul 2007, 00:27

miniadventure05 wrote:Strongbow talks a load of rubbish, do people realise he is not even a showman? But runs a pub.... yeah he has owned rides etc. but just a man with cash to through around and pretend he is something he's not.

All this talk about photos is also rubbish, i'm sure he once was an enthusiast for the business and took pictures himself.

Sorry to sound rude, I have been reading these posts so long and it has just wound me up!

Come back to the real world Strongbow, Im sure your mean no harm just being who you are and not something else.

The trouble with learning from experience is that the test comes first and the lesson afterwards.



wow I wonder which forum you came from :D seeing as you just joined this one today
just to correct you slightly I dont run a pub I am a director of a pub company that runs pubs and I am very much hands on
I would like to know what im pretending to be as I dont pretend to be anything exept a risk taker and hard worker in the entertainement trade
I expect anything I buy to make money not sit there and look pretty
I worked from April till Sept last year at Dreamland trying to earn a few quid with 3 machines unfortunately the costs of maintainance and the lack of trade and the weather put paid to those aspirations
and in those circumstances you have to sit back take stock and downsize accordingly
that is why now I only open with juvenille equiptment and games as I lost most of my money last year and I refuse to give up
If I had money to throw around I would have been able to afford the restoration of my wheel which is still at rundles in storage awaiting me to save enough for its repairs and move to a kent restorer ready to open this christmas
of course im not a showman I attend small rallies etc locally although my great grandparents were members of the van dwellers association so there is something in my blood
I was last open last sunday at the festival of transport in swale and have only a few events to attend over the next month
with regard to copyright this is a modern thing that many have jumped on the bandwaggon with......In the 50s 60s this was unheard of look at any old photographs you will rarely see copyright notices on them
nowadays people seem not to want others to share so stick a copyright on everything
Actually I never took photographs as I could not afford a camera in my youth im 50 years old and in 1957 money was tight and you couldnt just buy anything on a credit card you had to save to buy things cash actually I lie I had a kodak instamatic for christmas one year but couldnt afford the film or developing on my pocket money
feel free to call in anytime for a chat or give me a ring and we can talk rubbish together dont hide behind your keyboard
constructive criticism is good :wink:
OOPS forgot ........this posting is copyright of strongbow and may not be replicated without the owners permission :lol:
It is better to regret something you did, rather than to regret something you didn't do.
Strongbow55
 
Posts: 195
Joined: 27 May 2006, 00:40
Location: Sittingbourne

Postby EAS » 27 Jul 2007, 10:46

This is the basics of copyright law:

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyr ... yright_law
User avatar
EAS
 
Posts: 1886
Joined: 18 Sep 2006, 09:09
Location: North

Postby keith » 31 Jul 2007, 17:01

Hi RJW
I might have been one of those snapping Jimmy's Skid at Cambridge who you saw who looked as they might be over the hill for riding it but can assure you in my case I did :)
keith
 
Posts: 4
Joined: 29 Jul 2007, 21:42
Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire


Return to Travelling Fairs Forum

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

cron