What I Learned

I have to admit that I thought this was going to be much easier than it turned out.  Hardware technology has improved dramatically in the past few years, especially smart photo capabilities. There are still some limitations. My Droid X camera still doesn’t provide the quality of images I want. The auto shutter speed is too slow in low light situations and the flash adjustment is frustrating. MZ’s Android phone has a much better camera. The FlipCam provided the nicest images but could not be uploaded until after the show.

With all our background in copyright and fair use, we were naive to assume we could document such a major artist without legal issues. By purchasing a ticket you agree to the contract law and stipulations of the engagement, these supersede any fair use application.  So we were informed before the show started that there would be no photos permitted in the first five rows, and there were a group of security people to help remind us. We were also frisked on the way in for cameras and contraband forcing us to discreetly bring in our hardware.

During a show the atmosphere is always chaotic. We had some idea of what portions might be more significant or unusual – Dylan on guitar, songs that were not frequently played, interesting backdrop treatments, etc. The coordination of capturing the moment, commenting on it and uploading it – all while trying to watch the show took some effort.  So there were some empty uploads or bad image uploads that had to be edited later. MZ has had more practice with this and pulled it off much better than I was able to. Again my phone images were weak and didn’t seem worthy of posting.

I do currently have one YouTube clip of the show published. Within 15 minutes of posting it, I received a notice that it was a copyright violation of this artist and would I kindly remove it. They threatened that my account would be deleted if I did not comply. Since it is the only clip on my account, I’m waiting to see how long that process takes. Not that I don’t understand and agree with the policy, more that I just want to see the procedural process in action.

I am looking forward to trying this again and improving on our efforts. Your comments and suggestions are encouraged. - mc

UPDATE 11/15/10 -- It took exactly one week for my video to be deleted from Youtube with a stern warning that next time my account would be deleted. However the clip continues to work from the embedded link. So I will watch to see how long that will last.