As I travel the country conducting workshops, I hear
this story over and over. Colleges, and now high schools, are getting more restrictive about allowing cameras at their events. The issue is not news coverage but the right to sell photos taken at the event.
We saw this arise last year in Louisiana, too. When the state athletics association attempted to restrict which photographs news organizations could sell, the journalists pushed back hard. The athletic association backed down. Earlier this year in Illinois,
the legislature got involved in a similar dispute when a high school athletic association tried to limit how news organizations use photographs and video of sporting events.
Similar battles have heated up in Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa and Michigan.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
reported last year about the disputes in Wisconsin and Louisiana:
The disputes in both states -- which mirror similar controversies elsewhere -- may foreshadow future clashes over Internet photography and video rights as reporting technology advances.
Increasingly, state high school athletic associations sell photography or video rights to its games to professional companies that make money off the photos they sell. These contracts give them extra incentive to restrict media organizations whose coverage can compete with the private companies.
Though the media's increased use of the Web has exacerbated the issue, it is not a new one. Nor is it limited to high school sports, said John Cherwa, sports coordinator for the Tribune Company and legal affairs chair for the Associated Press Sports Editors.
"The whole thing has to do with intellectual property," Cherwa said. "Sports organizations do not want anyone else profiting from their product."
Now in Indiana, the
Hoosier State Press Association's legal counsel, Steve Key, recently informed members that the Indiana High School Athletic Association is considering asking newsrooms to pay a fee if the news organization intends to sell photographs taken at a school event. Again, this is not about news photos, but the resale of photos.
Key's memo cautioned that the athletic association's notions are, at the moment, not a formal proposal. According to Key, the press association sees two potential arguments:
Some journalists argue that newspapers should pay to cover events to ensure objectivity in coverage. If this argument was applied to the IHSAA situation, then newspapers could offer a "token" payment equal to admission cost to satisfy IHSAA request and maintain a pure journalistic approach.
On the other hand, the argument exists that such an agreement with IHSAA sets precedent that other entities will point toward in arguing for similar arrangements. Those entities could include Indiana State Fair, county 4-H fairs, local high school sporting events, local festivals, etc. Photo rights shouldn't be purchased, but are inherent in photos taken by photographers covering events and rights of use of those photos lies with the newspaper. If an entity wants to insist on photo sale restrictions as a provision of obtaining credentials to cover an event, then newspapers can make a choice as to whether to accept a credential or not photographically cover the event. It's then a contractual negotiation and the question is who blinks first on that provision. Does the entity's desire for greater coverage outweigh its interest in controlling photo sales or does the newspaper's desire to photographically cover an event outweigh its interest in controlling the use of photos taken at that event.
As to the IHSAA-specific situation, it should also be noted that "token" payments today could become larger payments in the future.
No one wins this battle. If photographers quit covering events...
