Berkeley student paper locks out photographers

For immediate release


UCB student paper locks out photographers

BERKELEY, Calif. — The U.C. Berkeley student newspaper fired its photo editor
on Friday (11/14/03) after he was locked out for refusing to transfer all
rights of his creative work to the paper.

Photo Editor David Krantz and five other student photographers have been
locked out from working for the Daily Californian since mid-July, when the
paper demanded that they sign work-for-hire contracts — a new policy the
students call exploitive.

"A newspaper that's supposed to be for the students' benefit is instead taking
advantage of the students," said Peter Dolan, a senior who has been shooting
for the Daily Californian for one year.

By default, freelance photographers own the copyrights to their own work. By
signing a work-for-hire contract, a photographer surrenders ownership of his
or her work.

"They're taking away our intellectual property when it's not necessary to do
so," said Krantz, the former photo editor. "We're freelancing on a practically
volunteer basis for the Daily Cal, and the paper insists on stealing our
photos from us. We've already offered them free usage for whatever they want
to do with our photos, but they’ve turned that down flatly."

The six student photographers — Phillip Angert, Hadas Dimentstein, Dolan,
Krantz, Jigar Mehta and Jay Whiteside — are fighting the work-for-hire
contract so that they and future students can retain ownership of their own
work.

"Management says, 'Just sign it, it doesn't mean anything,' " said Krantz, who
is also a student at the Graduate School of Journalism. "But if it weren't a
big deal they wouldn't be pushing us to sign it."

The photographers hope that the Daily Californian will reconsider its position
and negotiate a resolution with them.

"The reason student papers worked in the past was because there's pretty much
been an understanding: 'Hey, here’s free labor, in exchange we get published.'
It helps us move along in our professional careers," said Mehta, a student at
the Graduate School of Journalism who has been photographing for the Daily
Californian since Spring 2001. "But this situation is unacceptable: Asking us
to volunteer our time and our labor then also asking for our copyrights."


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