The article “For God’s sake, Somebody Call It” that EPUK published on 1st August has been lifted wholesale for a blast of self promotion by the London Photographic Association, a business claiming to “assist and advise our international membership on how to market themselves through the web.” They forgot the “unlawfully & dishonestly” bit.

EPUK’s copyright article, in which Neil Burgess, a former Magnum boss and twice World Press Photo Chairman pronounced the death of photojournalism had become one of the most viewed features ever on the EPUK web site.

For God’s sake, that’s EPUK’s article! Our original left, the lifted copy right.

On 9th August, as EPUK’s web traffic soared, the LPA issued their own press release, and began plugging “their” article on Twitter. The present count of LPA tweets now tops 100.

The LPA published EPUK’s article verbatim and without permission on their web site where their own copyright notice states “It is illegal to download / reproduce / use images appearing on this site … without … consent.”

Neil Burgess and David Hoffman, whose work was illegally downloaded and reproduced without consent by the LPA, are not best pleased. Neither are the EPUK Moderators, especially as this ploy by the LPA seems designed to draw a serious amount of traffic away from EPUK – enriching the LPA at EPUK’s expense.

An annual subscription to the LPA, who claim to promote the work of their membership “to the international advertising and editorial community” costs £125 for UK residents. Extra web traffic nicked from EPUK could make plagiarism quite profitable.

Whether LPA members think that promotion by copyright theft is a good way to advance their careers is not a question the LPA addresses.

When EPUK phoned the LPA for an explanation there was no answer. We left a message asking them to return our call as a matter of urgency. We have not received a reply.

The file has been passed to EPUK’s lawyers who will be looking for proportionately substantial damages, an apology and an immediate takedown.

  • Some of the above links no longer work because the offending article and press release have been withdrawn.


    • EPUK is a non-profit organisation run by professional photographers for professional photographers. Membership is free.

Text © EPUK 2010


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