I have a hard time getting high-and-mighty about the paparazzi crap that I see in grocery store lines, given that I can’t seem to tear my eyes away from the train-wreck controversies of online celebrities. I just…. can’t…. look…. away!

Over the past two weeks, one of the big memes in the echo chamber is related to stealing photos… It seems a small a capella band created a fun/goofy song about the Web 2.0 Bubble, set to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. The video is a montage of photos of assorted Web 2.0 personalities, logos, etc. It’s cute. I’ll embed it below (note: this is the first time I’ve EVER embedded a YouTube video!).

IANAL, so I can’t really speak to whether this use falls under “fair use” and parody laws. I think the band in question truly believed that it does and did their best to make it right once they realized that they might be in a bit of a “gray area” (read their blog post here).

Regardless, what struck me was the strident and downright venomous response from some photographers and other “artists”. It sounds exactly like the venom spewed by real estate agents towards RedFin. It sounds a lot like some movie studios and musicians when they talk about what’s happening in their industry. These people aren’t angry at just this little a capella band. They are angry at the entire world for evolving past their business model. They’re angry about becoming obsolete. How obsolete they become depends on how well they adapt to the world– not how loudly they demand that the world adapt to THEM. Off the top of my head, here are a few things that are changing the business of professional photography:

  • Cheap startup costs. Used to be that a professional photographer had to invest thousands in cameras, lenses, and development equipment. It still isn’t cheap to have good equipment, but it’s cheaper.
  • Time and expenses of developing photos is greatly reduced (thanks to digital photography and Photoshop).
  • There is a growing pile of semi-pro photographers who are happy to give away their photos or sell them royalty-free for a few bucks.ne?
  • There are great marketplaces out there for cheap/good stock photography. iStockPhoto, anyone?
  • Print media is dying. Slowly, but it’s dying.
  • The global marketplace. For many photos, you just don’t need an onshore photographer. If I want a cool close-up shot of a keyboard and mouse, there are plenty of great photographers in Eastern Europe that have probably already have taken just such a photo and are delighted to sell it for a few bucks, royalty free.

    • Is the photography/stock photo business dead? Not by a long shot, and not for a long time… But clearly there’s a shakeup in the works.

    Here’s that embedded video. If you haven’t already seen it, enjoy: