NPPA Says Sweeping Drone Ban Over Chicago Is ‘Pretext for Suppressing Press Freedom’ https://petapixel.com/2025/10/07/nppa-says-sweeping-drone-ban-over-chicago-is-pretext-for-suppressing-press-freedom/ #photojournalism #firstamendment #Industry #droneban #drone #News #nppa #Law

NPPA Condemns ICE Assault on Journalists ‘In the Strongest Possible Terms’ https://petapixel.com/2025/10/03/nppa-condemns-ice-assault-on-journalists-in-the-strongest-possible-terms/ #nationalpressphotographersassociation #immigrationandcustomsenforcement #mickeyhosterreicher #photojournalism #photojournalist #federalplaza #videographer #immigration #Culture #migrant #newyork #News #nppa #ice

Medicine Prices: भारत में 35 आवश्यक दवाओं की कीमतों में हुई कटौती, मरीजों को मिलेगी राहत

🌐 Like ‼️ Share ‼️ Follow ‼️
#News #medicine #prices #NPPA

https://rightnewsindia.com/medicine-prices-prices-of-35-essential-medicines-reduced-in-india-patients-will-get-relief/

Judge Rules LAPD Cannot Block Photojournalists From Documenting Protests https://petapixel.com/2025/07/11/judge-rules-lapd-cannot-block-photojournalists-from-documenting-protests/ #mickeyosterreicher #photojournalist #firstamendment #journalists #losangeles #rights #legal #News #lapd #nppa #Law #law #la

NPPA Elects New Leadership, Urges Members to Renew Support https://petapixel.com/2025/07/10/nppa-elects-new-leadership-urges-members-to-renew-support/ #nationalpressphotographersassociation #mickeyosterreicher #boardofdirectors #emergencymeeting #finances #legal #News #nppa #Law #law

NPPA Lays Off Staff, Asks Lawyers to Work Pro Bono as Its Financial Future Is in Question https://petapixel.com/2025/07/07/nppa-lays-off-staff-asks-lawyers-to-work-pro-bono-as-its-financial-future-is-in-question/ #nationalpressphotographersassociation #mickeyosterreicher #boardofdirectors #emergencymeeting #finances #Culture #legal #News #nppa #Law #law

More Than 40 Journalist-Supported Groups Condemn ‘Government Attacks on Press Freedom’ https://petapixel.com/2025/02/21/more-than-40-journalist-supported-groups-condemn-government-attacks-on-press-freedom/ #nationalpressphotographersassociation #societyofprofessionaljournalists #associatedpress #journalism #whitehouse #prescorps #presspool #politics #Culture #trump #News #nppa #ap

National Press Photographers Association Condemns White House for Banning AP Journalists https://petapixel.com/2025/02/16/national-press-photographers-association-condemns-white-house-for-banning-ap-journalists/ #nationalpressphotographersassociation #associatedpress #whitehouse #prescorps #presspool #politics #Culture #trump #News #nppa #ap

"Enforcing our rights to our web content shouldn’t be this hard": Comments filed today by the National Writers Union @FSP_NWU #NWU) National Press Photographers Association #NPPA and National Association of Science Writers #NASW on proposed rules for registration of copyright in updates to websites:

https://nwu.org/enforcing-our-rights-to-our-web-content-shouldnt-be-this-hard/

This is so sad. NPPA Executive Director Akili Ramsess has suffered the tragic loss of her son and grandchildren to a car accident. Former colleagues have set up a GoFundMe. Please donate if you can.

https://gofund.me/eec4f3c3

#Journalism #Photojournalism #Photography #NPPA

#MountStHelens erupted this day in 1980 - 43 years ago. Photojournalist #ReidBlackburn perished in the eruption. He is not forgotten. #NPPA

Do you think of yourself as a leader? Then waiting for everybody else to drop the bird site is not setting a good example. Every teacher teaches morality and ethics even if they don’t grade for them. Every journalist represents their personal brand and that of their employer with every post. #edtech #MakerEducation #nppa #cue #journalism
https://mashable.com/article/microsoft-drops-twitter-from-advertising-platform

When you are practicing using your new camera equipment but your pup 🐶 believes she’s the center of the universe. #canonr5 #canon #journalists #photojournalism #photojournalists #nppa #DogsMastodon #journalistsofmastodon

Hi #mastodon,
I’m Marie, first Latina president of the National Press Photographers Association and former photojournalist at the Houston Chronicle. 📸

#journalists #journalism #journalistsofmastodon
#nppa

Stringent Texas Anti-Drone Law Overturned in Federal Court

#law #news #aerial #dronelaw #drones #firstamendment #journalism #lawsuit #legal #mickeyosterreicher #nationalpressphotographersassociation #nppa #texas

55 Media Organizations Urge Congress to Drop Subpoena of Photojournalist’s Phone

A group of 55 media organizations and advocates for press freedom have sent a letter urging the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol to withdraw a subpoena to a photojournalist's phone records.

Initial Lawsuit Filed to Block the Subpoena

Photojournalist Amy Harris filed a lawsuit on December 16 against the Congressional Committee to block access to her records that are included in a subpoena that was served to Verizon on November 24, 2021, which would grant subscriber information and call detail records to the committee for the period November 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021.

Harris, who spent 2020 photographing the racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and at other events of unrest that led up to and followed the 2020 presidential election argues that the records contain the phone numbers of confidential and non-confidential sources, which if revealed would endanger them as well as her.

“While the NPPA greatly appreciates the crucial mission of the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, we believe it is misguided for members to subpoena the phone records of a visual journalist who risked her health and safety to report on and photograph protests on both sides of the political spectrum,” Akili-Casundria Ramsess, NPPA executive director, said at the time.

Letter to the Select Committee

Today, a group of 55 media organizations and advocates for press freedom through The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press that includes Fox News, CNN, Vox Media, Buzzfeed, The New York Times, the LA Times, and the Washinton Post among others have urged the Select Committee to withdraw the subpoena for Harris's phone records.

"The undersigned members of the news media and advocates for press freedom write to express our profound concern with reports that the Select Committee has issued a subpoena for the telephone toll records of a photojournalist, Amy Harris," the letter says.

"The events of January 6th were an attack on democracy, and it would be incongruous were a Congressional investigation into 1/6 to itself endanger the independence of the press. We respectfully urge the Select Committee to withdraw the subpoena."

The group says that while Congress does have the power to conduct this investigation, the act of newgathering is protected under the First Amendment and can be invoked against infringement of the protected freedoms.

"The Select Committee is seeking the type of information -- granular data about who called whom and when -- that could disclose the identity of confidential sources or impair Harris’s reporting on stories that have nothing to do with the 1/6 attack. That information is particularly sensitive, as the inability of a journalist to maintain the confidentiality of sources means sources will be less likely to come forward, which itself limits the free flow of information to the public," the letter continues.

"For that reason, confrontations between Congress and newsgathering rights have been rare. To our knowledge, the last time Congress contemplated using the press as an investigative arm of the legislature was during Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings, when a special counsel appointed by the Senate sought authorization to depose Newsday’s Timothy Phelps and National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg, as well as a subpoena for their phone records."

The letter says that following national outcry, lawmakers declined to do so in that 1992 case, and Senate Rules Committee, Sen. Wendell Ford of Kentucky said that granting “the requested orders could have a chilling effect on the media and could close a door where more doors need opening.”

"Constitutional protections for newsgathering reflect the reality, well known to the framers, that the press itself preserves democratic governance by promoting an informed electorate. It cannot do so if sources are concerned that speaking to the press will expose them to the burdens of a government investigation. The Select Committee’s subpoena threatens to compromise that independence, and we strongly urge you to withdraw it," the letter concludes.

“The National Press Photographers Association is very grateful to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the more than 50 media and press freedom organizations who joined the coalition letter seeking that the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol withdraw the subpoena and redress the chilling effect such action has on journalists,” says Mickey H. Osterreicher, NPPA General Counsel.

The letter, which can be read here, has been sent to the Chair of the Select Committee, Congressman Bennie Thompson and Vice-Chair Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

Image credits: All photos licensed via Depositphotos.

#culture #law #news #amyharris #congressionalcommittee #insurrection #january6 #legal #nppa #photojournalist #uscongress

Photojournalist Challenges Congress’s Jan 6th Investigation Phone Subpoena

Photojournalist Amy Harris has attempted to block the United States House Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol from gaining access to her phone records, saying the public release of the information could compromise her safety as well as her future work.

The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is currently engaged in an investigation to report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power. Obviously a complicated issue, the committee is looking to gather as much information as possible, but the NPPA argues it may have overstepped its bounds in relation to one photojournalist.

On December 15, Harris's lawyers filed a suit against the Congressional Committee to block access to her records that are included in a subpoena that was served to Verizon on November 24, 2021, which would grant subscriber information and call detail records to the committee for the period November 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021.

The filed complaint requests “a declaration that the cell phone data sought by the Verizon Subpoena is protected by the First Amendment, the federal common law reporter’s privilege, and the District of Columbia’s Free Flow of Information Act, D.C. Code § 16-4701 et seq., and enjoining the House Select Committee from obtaining or reviewing such cell phone data.”

According to the NPPA, Harris had spent much of her career as a music and concert photographer for the Associated Press, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to pivot and shift her focus as many of those events came to a halt in March of 2020. By May of that year, Harris had began photographing the racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and at other events of unrest that led up to and followed the 2020 presidential election.

Harris traveled to 23 cities where protests occurred and made over 50,000 images, with her work appearing in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, People, and New York Magazine. As part of that coverage, Harris was was part of a project focused on the “Proud Boys” and their leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio.

The NPPA says that her coverage of the group around the time of the January 6 insurrection may be what led to the Committee’s interest in her phone records, but argues that those records need to remain confidential to allow her to continue to do her job.

"Those records also contain the phone numbers of other confidential and non-confidential sources, impermissibly intruding on her protected newsgathering activities, damaging her ability to report on current and future stories, and placing her in danger from those who may wish to harm or harass her based on her reporting," the NPPA says.

“While the NPPA greatly appreciates the crucial mission of the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, we believe it is misguided for members to subpoena the phone records of a visual journalist who risked her health and safety to report on and photograph protests on both sides of the political spectrum,” Akili-Casundria Ramsess, NPPA executive director, says.

“Such actions have a chilling effect upon the core First Amendment values critical to the democratic principles the Committee was established to protect and we hope they will seriously reconsider their position in this matter.”

Header Photo: Members of Proud Boys and their leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, gather in the streets following the Million MAGA March on Dec. 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C., and burn a Black Lives Matter flag. Photo by Amy Harris

#culture #news #amyharris #congressionalcommittee #insurrection #january6 #law #legal #nppa #photojournalist #uscongress

📬 Pekinger Regierung setzt Zulassung neuer Games aus #Gaming #ChinaCentralTelevision #LeagueofLegendeWildRift #Netease #NPPA #SouthChinaMorningPost #Tencent https://tarnkappe.info/pekinger-regierung-setzt-zulassung-neuer-games-aus/

Ancestry.com’s New Terms Allow it to Use Your Family Photos for Anything

On August 3, Ancestry.com -- the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world -- updated its terms and conditions to include new language that gives it the right to use any family photos uploaded to its system for anything it likes, forever and without limits.

Ancestry's updates to its terms and conditions focus mainly on changes to the rights it has as a company to use photos that are uploaded by users into its system:

[B]y submitting User Provided Content through any of the Services, you grant Ancestry a perpetual, sublicensable, worldwide, non-revocable, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, publish, distribute, provide access to, create derivative works of, and otherwise use such User Provided Content to the extent and in the form or context we deem appropriate on or through any media or medium and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed or discovered. This includes the right for Ancestry to copy, display, and index your User Provided Content. Ancestry will own the indexes it creates.

PetaPixel spoke with Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association (NPAA) regarding the change and if he believed that such a broad set of terms was reasonable.

"It always concerns me when the rights that are being sought are overly broad. I certainly understand when lawyers write these things up that they do it for the benefit of their client or their company, but sometimes I don't think they think about the fact that what they ask for is much greater than what they actually need," Osterreicher says. "Until someone questions it or pushes back, it's there. it's one of the things that I and the NPAA stress all the time. People really need to read and understand terms of service and conditions: it's a contract."

"This change to the Ancestry Terms and Conditions is consistent with the manner in which other genealogy research platforms handle user-provided content," the company writes in a blog that PetaPixel was pointed to when the company was reached for comment. "It was never intended to enable Ancestry to do anything with our users’ content other than facilitate a vibrant family history community that brings the value of personal discoveries to all."

Ancestry says that the change was only meant to encompass the expected services of the genealogy company. It says that its goal is to connect its users by allowing them to share discoveries about their family histories with each other, and sharing photos, documents, and stories are part of that. Should a user want to make its photos private, Ancestry says it respects that.

This might be the case in spirit, but the overly broad language tells a different story.

"Even though Ancestry doesn't take your copyright, they pretty much take everything you get by owning the copyright. You can still use the photos elsewhere, but the display rights, the right to copy, pretty much everything is given to Ancestry. You can't revoke the sublicense or get paid for it," Osterreicher says.

He explains that to the extent that Ancestry would like to use the images for the purposes that the company was created for, that would be all that they would really need in an updated set of terms. But instead, the company only barely stops short of claiming the copyright but is essentially covered to do everything that owning the copyright to the image would grant. Even where the company was not specific, it has covered itself by saying that it still has rights to technologies that may not even be discovered or developed yet.

Ancestry admits that it received feedback about the update and explains that users can still revoke the rights given to Ancestry should they desire.

Notwithstanding the non-revocable and perpetual nature of this license, it terminates when your User Provided Content is deleted from our systems. Be aware that to the extent you elected to make your User Provided Content “public” and other users copied or saved it to the Services, this license continues until the content has been deleted both by you and the other users.

While it is true that deleting any photos from Ancestry's server would remove the company's rights to them, the second section says that specifically deleting something doesn't necessarily complete the process.

"Even if you took the photo down or terminated [your Ancestry subscription], if somebody else posted the photo, Ancestry continues to own it," Osterreicher says.

Another point that Osterreicher raises is that family photos taken by a hired portrait photographer or a photo studio are likely commonly uploaded. In those cases, he says that most of the time the user doesn't own the rights to that copyright -- the photographer does.

"There are two things going on here," he says. "One, a discussion about your own images and whether you want to grant those rights. Or the second, if you're posting images someone else owns rights to and if you may be violating their copyright."

Regardless of the intent of terms and conditions changes, Osterreicher says it's important for people to look at user agreements the same way they would look at the contract to buy a car. It is unlikely that someone would just buy a car without reading the fine print about the interest rates, for example. He says that in the rush for instant gratification, many people overlook important aspects of terms and conditions. In this case, Ancestry asked for much more than it needed, and the only way that it would get changed is if enough people called for it.

"The analogy that I normally make is that copyright is very much like owning a home as opposed to renting or leasing. There are many things you can do with that home when you have the deed, and that is the same with copyright. So in a way, even if you own the copyright and grant the license, it's like someone can come into your house and do whatever they want," he explains. "You can still live there, and own it, but they are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want. I don't think most people think of it that way when it comes to pictures."

Image credits: Background of header photo licensed via Depositphotos.

#law #news #copyright #imagerights #legal #mickeyosterreicher #nationalpressphotographersassociation #nppa #rightsgrab #termsandconditions