Tag Archives: australian tourism

 

There are many generous people in society, many just doing what they do without worrying about what financial costs or burdens, they just do what they think is right and hopefully the recipients appreciate the generosity in which it was given.

 

One such person is Carol M. Highsmith  , probably one of America’s best loved and most iconic documentary photographers. She has been documenting american lifestyle and iconic images for decades. She is at the very top of her field.

 

She is also a very generous soul, donating thousands of images to the United States Library of Congress at no charge since 1988, so the general public can have free access to her documented images. Congress calls the donation “one of the greatest acts of generosity in the history of the library”

 

Carey Dunne, in her article for the online publication Hyperallergic, tells us how it was discovered:

 

“Carol Highsmith received a letter from Getty Images accusing her of copyright infringement for featuring one of her own photographs on her own website. It demanded payment of $120. …. Highsmith came to learn that stock photo agencies Getty and Alamy had been sending similar threat letters and charging fees to users of her images, which she had donated to the Library of Congress for use by the general public at no charge. ”

 

It wasn’t just one or two photographs either. Over 18,700 of her photos have been claimed by Getty and Alamy as their own. Some included false watermarks and gave no credit to the original photographer at all.

 

The article goes on ….. “Highsmith has filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against both Alamy and Getty for “gross misuse” of 18,755 of her photographs. “The defendants [Getty Images] have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people,” the complaint reads. “[They] are not only unlawfully charging licensing fees … but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner.” According to the lawsuit, Getty and Alamy, on their websites, have been selling licenses for thousands of Highsmith’s photographs, many without her name attached to them and stamped with “false watermarks.”

 

Its not the first time Getty have been caught doing something illegal with other peoples images. They seem to feel they are beyond reproach.

 

It makes for an interesting read here .

 

The issue for those of us that use social media is, how do we know that Getty, Alamy or whoever aren’t stealing our photos and selling them as stock photo’s to unsuspecting buyers.

 

The truth is, we don’t.

 

The two instances that they have been caught fraudulently selling others images as their own is most likely the tip of the iceberg in what is out there illegally.

 

Can we do anything about it? We certainly need to be vigilant and be alert, but unless we are a high end photographer who would watermark their photo’s anyway, there is probably little we need to worry about.

 

The real issue is if we buy a Getty image and find out later they didn’t have the royalty free rights to the photo. We may find ourselves involved in an expensive and time consuming legal battle we are ill prepared for or can not afford.

 

When Getty Images bought Istockphoto, they paid $50m and that included all photos on their database. The assumption was that Getty own the contributors photos and that is what they’d like to imply, but the truth is, they don’t own contributors photo’s at all, they just own the rights to sell them for a commission.

 

Without doubt Getty are very aggressive in the photo markets they dominate. They have 200 million images available, are forming partnerships with many companies that own smaller competitors, opening their markets up to Asian centers that are basically untapped to this american giant.

 

With nearly 2000 employees around the world, clearly their thirst for dominance has landed them is some serious hot water. The case of Mrs Highsmith is a perfect example of that. Will they get away with this for less than a billion dollars? Time will tell.

 

Interesting times.

 

Negativity, it is our enemy

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For the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of navel gazing. Why, I hear you ask. Well, simply put, there is nothing on TV.

 

It is more than that though. I don’t know about you, but elections and election debates and promises aren’t riveting viewing for me. I’d rather watch paint dry to be perfectly frank.

 

But, when an election is called, my business tends to go on a holding pattern. Historically, elections tend to spook people, making them uneasy. They start worrying about their future, worrying about their investments, worrying about their retirement funds and generally worrying that the ‘other’ party may secure government. Negativity takes hold.

 

Small business owners are often the hardest hit during the election process. Either Federal or State, when it comes to an election, it is a given that business momentum will suffer.

 

It’s not hard to understand why either. The media is filled with negativity and actually feeds on it. Each political contender is always happy to share a negative story about their opponent, whether it is true or not. There is rarely a positive story in the press during any election campaign. Added in to the mix we are all bombarded with special interest groups wanting concessions, more this, less that. More negativity and accusations usually result from these groups trying to help a political party get in on the promise of a better deal from the other lot.

 

Is it really any wonder business often stagnates during an election period? No not really.

 

I’ve spoken to all sorts of industry representatives since this most recent election was called. All say the same thing… business has slowed. Those who deal with government contracts are no better than those that don’t. Once a government is in caretaker mode, nothing proceeds.

 

Speaking to a gentleman today from one of Australia’s largest hire companies, he tells me that negativity in the press quickly affects his sales figures, almost from day one of a campaign. People hesitate, waiting to see the direction of the economy.

 

I’ve spoken to government employees too. They stress over their jobs when an election is called. Will the status quo be maintained or will a new government come in and change the job prospects? Nothing is a certainty any more. They usually change their spending habits like everyone else. Only essential purchases are made.

 

So, what can we do to stabilize our small business? How do we compete with the increased negativity in the market place?

 

Well, largely it depends on our own attitude. That goes a long way to restoring the balance with our client base.

 

Generally, if we have a negative attitude, our clients will respond in the same manner. If we have a positive approach, they will feel that we are more in control of our business and that will subconsciously give them confidence.

 

Something like a simple smile can relay a positive approach. We don’t have to lie about how bad business is, but we don’t have to tell them either. Keep it positive.

 

I’m not going to pretend it’s easy either. I can have a classic whinge like the best of them, but it really doesn’t help the situation we find ourselves in.

 

Author Lindsey Rietzsch is quoted as saying “A negative attitude drains, a positive attitude energizes.” She is right.

 

We have all experienced it I’m sure. If you have had a bad week, things aren’t going as planned; it is easy to get into a negative frame of mind. When we do, we also experience tiredness sooner than normal. On the other hand, when things are going well, and we experience a lot of positive experiences, we can often just keep going and let sleep wait for another time. I’m sure you have probably experienced that at some time.

 

So in conclusion, even though most of us are experiencing a down turn in trade for the short term, perhaps we could take the opportunity to follow up on clients we haven’t seen for a while or make some positive changes around our working environment.

 

You could even take the afternoon off and spend it with family.

 

We are all going to be affected by negativity at some point. Some things we can’t change. But if we can, why not find a positive and dwell on that instead.

 

On that thought, I’m going back to my navel gazing. There is still nothing on TV.

 

 


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Wos is das?

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A while ago now, 3 generations of Drew’s were working on site at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

A great place, run by dedicated people, doing good things for our wildlife.

So, when you work there, the ethic of helping tends to take over.

It is no surprise then, when tourist see you working in a uniform, they ask you all sorts of questions.

It doesn’t matter that your uniform isn’t green, with a totally different logo on it to the sanctuary uniform. Nor does it seem to matter that you are installing signs with drills and ladders and non animal stuff.

Tourist see you in a uniform so you must know the mating call of a wombat, or the distress call of a Tasmanian Devil, or the directions to the ladies loo.

Most times we did our best to answer but some questions were pretty hard to understand.

One Japanese woman started yelling that she had been there 15 minutes and hadn’t seen any animals. I was a bit surprised given that we were only a few paces from the Kangaroo enclosure that was teaming with the little critters. When she calmed down, I asked her what she wanted to see in particular. “Anything!” was the reply. ‘Well’ I said in my best tour guide voice ‘ if you’d like to follow this path, the Kangaroo enclosure is just beyond that gate’. I did the hand gestures and everything. Everyone knows if you can’t speak the language, just raise your voice and point with your hands. It works wonders.

“KANGAROOS? I don’t want to see them, I want to see Birds.” was her response. So I pointed her in the direction of the bird show and she went on her way, not before giving me the look that gave me the impression that if she didn’t like the birds, I was going to be held responsible.

Apart from Japanese, we also me a lot of Indian, Italian and German tourists.

One thing that was pretty obvious from the start is that safety cones defining a ‘no go’ area mean nothing to the overseas tourists. We had people stepping over the cones to get into our work space, playing with the cones, and manhandling our unfinished signs.

What is Indian for ‘Don’t Touch’ anyway?

The second sign we installed was beside a staff only gate. While I was working, I was conscious of this very attractive woman with admirable assets trying to get my attention. Wanting to be a good ambassador for the sanctuary, I finished what I was doing and asked if I could help her.

She looked at me, pointing to the lock said ‘Wos is das?” Looking down I said it was a security lock.

She pointed to the lock again and said “how doo I git in?” I told her very politely that she needed to buy a ticket at the shop behind her, and go through the main gate.

Then, she looked at me and said “Wos is das?” and started pointing to her breasts.

I considered telling her the obvious but I figured she probably already knew that. I wasn’t sure of the answer she was looking for, or if I was on candid camera, so I opted for the safe option and said ‘Pardon?’

She started throwing her chest out and said “Wos is das…. un my Breast?”

The first thing that came to my mind was ‘freckles’ but I don’t think that was the answer she was after either. I opted for ‘Pardon’ again.

“Look! My Breast! Wos is das un my Breast?

At this point I was very conscious of my son watching his dad being encouraged to ogle at a very attractive woman’s assets.

I then realised she had droplets of moisture on her skin. I was so close to her breasts it could easily have been the perspiration from my forehead. I began wondering how I would explain this to the wife after my son gave his interpretation of the event. All I could think to tell her is that it may have been rain.

“Rain? From da sky?” she said somewhat disbelieving. “Nothing dangerous” I said.

She seemed happy but my son was less than amused.

‘Dad’ he said ‘ there isn’t a cloud in the sky’

He was right. But if it wasn’t rain, it was probably bird pee, and I was not going to go down that path with a young woman who saw nothing embarrassing about shaking her bootie in the face of a middle-aged man in full view of everyone, especially his son.