Ă‚Â Editorial Photographers of U.K. and Ireland, an independent membership-based group and email list, is spearheading a grassroots copyright campaign. The first step is a new Web site, Copyright Action, a "community and educational resource that aims to become the intellectual property equivalent of Crimestoppers," according to EPUK.
Created for both amateur and professional photographers, Copyright Action intends to curtail copyright infringement. Slightly broader in scope than the recently launched Pro-Imaging campaign against rights-grabbing photo competitions, Copyright Action promises to "name and shame those whose business practices disregard fairness."
EPUK describes the current copyright situation as creators stuck between two opposing market forces: powerful corporate players, including many of the U.K.'s largest media companies, that unscrupulously pervert the concept of copyright, and the general public, which disregards copyright laws because it sees them as extortionate or monopolizing.
"Photography itself is being emasculated by these opposing forces, reduced to a commodity rather than valued as a cultural asset," contends EPUK. Copyright Action seeks participation from audiences sharing these beliefs.