The Photo Feed 11.30.07

Creative Commons Lawsuit Dropped (ITWorld / CNET)
You may recall the story of Alison Chang, the 16-year-old girl who appeared in ads for Virgin Mobile after Justin Ho-Wee Wong shot her picture and posted it to Flickr using the Creative Commons Attribution license. Upon learning of the ad, the Chang family filed a lawsuit against Creative Commons and Virgin Mobile. With little to gain, the Changs have dropped their case against Creative Commons and Virgin Mobile USA and are focusing their attention solely on Virgin Mobile of Australia. The family sought no money from Creative Commons, only a clearer license indicating that the attribution didn’t concern privacy rights. “There’s only so far we can go with spending money without getting money in return,” the Changs’ attorney, Ryan Zehl, said. Since Flickr users can choose not to license their pix, Creative Commons says the Changs never had a case. However, the organization’s founder and CEO Lawrence Lessig says Creative Commons will look at ways to make its licenses clearer to users. Also: CNET’s Gordon Haff weighs in on the Changs’ case, pointing out that “with Creative Commons licenses that permit modification of the final work it’s hard to see how it would even be possible to certify in advance that any possible use was permitted under all laws anywhere in the world.”

Deadly Business (Guardian)
2007 has been a deadly year for journalists—the deadliest actually. Since January 1, at least 171 journalists and other media staff have died as a result of their work. 168 deaths that were recorded in all of 2006. 121 of the 2007 casualties were murders, 15 died in random attacks or got caught in crossfires, 34 died in air or road accidents, and the cause of one journalist’s death remains uncertain. Predictably, Iraq was the deadliest country, with 64 journalists dying there. Other danger zones include Sri Lanka, where six journalists have been killed this year; Afghanistan, Mexico, India and the Philippines, each of which have seen five deaths; and Haiti, Pakistan and Somalia, each of which were the site of four fatalities.

125,000 Pix? It’s A Snap! (Photo Archive News)
It may take a lot of pix to build a village. But SnapVillage seems to be doing pretty well for itself. The Corbis-owned microstock site announced yesterday that its 125,000th image has been uploaded. According to Adam Brotman, senior VP of Corbis.com and SnapVillage.com, Corbis reached this milestone more quickly than the company had expected. “We are finding that photographers are uploading content to our site that they are not giving other microstock sites because SnapVillage offers a wider range of pricing options and allows them to pick their own price,” Brotman said. Currently, SnapVillage receives more than 10,000 pix a month.

MORE BELOW: Another Iraqi photog under fire ... Why one photog has returned to Nikon ... Is film still better than digital? ... One couple's divorce lands a huge photography collection on the auction block ... House & Garden staffers' very bad last day ... New York Post has a meta moment ...

Iraqi Photog Under Fire (L.A. Times)
When photog Dhia Kawaz reported that Iraqi security forces had killed 11 members of his family, it seemed like yet another example of the dangers faced by members of the media in Iraq. Then the media learned that Kawaz's supposedly dead family members were in fact alive and well. Now the former photog for Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and a number of government-owned newspapers under the Hussein regime is facing arrest for making those false allegations. It’s unclear exactly what charges may be brought against Kawaz, who says he didn’t intentionally relay false information and attributes his information on the alleged deaths to a brother-in-law.

He’s Ba-ack (Underexposed)
As the battle between Nikon and Canon heats up, at least one Canon shooter has found his way back to Nikon after switching to Canon in the late 1990s. Michael Reichmann says he “had few regrets at the switch through the first seven years of this decade and the move to digital because it’s my opinion that with its full-frame sensors and superior high-ISO noise capabilities, Canon had a clear edge.” But after buying the D300, Reichmann says, “Nikon is back in the game—big time!” The photog plans to buy the D3 when it comes out. “I feel that there is now going to be a huge resurgence in use of Nikon gear by pros and amateurs alike, and as a teacher and a writer it is appropriate for me to become much more familiar with what this platform now has to offer,” he said.

Is Film Still Better Than Digital? (Wired / PDNPulse)
If you haven’t been sold on the idea that film cameras are better than digital ones, Wired’s Charlie Sorrel just might be able to sway you. Not only do digital cameras have a longer shutter lag, produce more noise, and guzzle batteries more quickly. They also have more precise viewfinders and don’t become obsolete when the next model comes out.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (New York Times)
For some couples, a divorce simply means parting with a spouse. For Paramount Pictures executive vice president of creative advertising Nancy Goliger and Village Roadshow Pictures chairman and chief executive Bruce Berman, however, divorce also means parting with their photography collection. Part of the couple’s collection will be donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Getty Museum. Another 500 pix will be auctioned off by Christie’s. The first of three auctions will be limited to Diane Arbus’ photos and will be held in April. In October, another auction will sell only pix by William Eggleston, and in 2009, a third auction will offer the work of a broad range of photogs, including Walker Evans, Dorothea Lang and younger, less well-known shooters. The three sales are expected to bring in between $7 and $10 million. Of getting rid of the collection, Berman said, “I am surprised that I don’t feel sad. It’s time to move on.”

A House Is Not A Home Without Mag Covers (FishbowlNY)
As if it weren’t bad enough that their magazine got shuttered, Home & Garden staffers reportedly got searched by security on their last day at the office. A senior editor told staffers that they could each take one of the vintage framed House & Garden covers hanging in the office lobby for themselves. But those covers probably won’t be what the now former staffers will be remembering the mag by. When the Condé Nast powers-that-be learned that staffers were taking the old covers, they called on security to search every House & Garden employee—from head to toe, filing cabinet to mailbox—and seize the covers. Since some of the covers dated back to 1907, it’s possible that Condé Nast wanted to save them for the archives. Or maybe they just wanted to keep the pricey frames.

New York Post Has A Meta Moment (New York Post)
The folks at the New York Post seem to be really pysched: In today’s paper, they have a photo of philanthropist Brooke Astor’s daughter-in-law Charlene Marshall carrying a copy of yesterday’s newspaper … with a photo of herself on the front page!