26/9/10 – Internet – The story is rather amusing : the French Ministry of Culture, very active and extremely committed in its fight against internet piracy as proven by its defense of the Hadopi law, recently “borrowed” a photograph from La Tribune de l’Art and posted it on its website without ever asking our permission or even mentioning our name.
The article, dated 14 September 2010, which can be found “on the front page” of the “current events” pages, highlights the Maison de l’Histoire de France and its installation at the Archives Nationales. The published photo (ill. 1) is the one (ill. 2) we had taken on 10 September 2010, in the courtyard of the Hôtel Soubise which we had then posted right after. Although both pictures are taken from the same angle, the position of the clouds is definite proof of the original source. This is indeed our photograph, slightly cut off, bearing the name of the Ministry of Culture.
Let us be very clear : we are perfectly willing to offer the rights to this photograph to the Ministry which may do whatever it wishes with it (as long as it names the correct author). We are in favor of the free use of images on the internet. This is not a problem.
This incident simply proves that the government, quick to defend royalties by passing a law which is impossible to apply and threatens freedom of the press, is not even capable of respecting it. This is not even an isolated case as Hadopi’s most ardent supporters are often the first to pirate internet content [1]. Should the Ministry be denied access to the web ?