Written evidence submitted by Bob Marchant

I am a long established advertising photographer . and a member of the Association of Photographers. I was an early adopter of digital capture and have worked on a voluntary basis over many years in order to establish standards for the supply of digital imagery and best practice for digital workflow . I am the previous chair of the Digital Imaging Group of the Association of photographers , a contributing member of the UpDig group and a present member of the Periodical Publisher's Associations technical committee , working on the pic4press and pass4press initiatives that have streamlined the production process for UK magazines ( We are at present working on the issues surrounding cross media publication ) . I'm also Vice Chair of the Chartered Quality Institute's Special Interest Group for digital imaging . I would like to think that all of the above has contributed to the progress of digital imaging without causing any detrimental effects.

I have been able to give time to such causes because of the income derived from my photographic business.

I have been a self employed as a photographer for thirty seven years . During this period I have been commissioned because of creative ability and professional skills My business has survived for this period and been enabled to purchase and redevelop two studio properties because of the of ownership of intellectual property in my images , and the application of my moral rights when it comes to reproduction of my images . And of course the business has paid full UK taxes and generated large sums of VAT .

The proposals in the Hargreaves Report would seek to remove the mainstays of my income in order to benefit individuals and companies that wish to exploit digital content without appropriate financial compensation or with due regard to my moral rights.

The basis for promoting this act of theft and impropriety is that of economic gain for society as a whole . But this is a false assumption with no true foundation . The fact is that the UK gains a huge economic benefit at present from content creators , second only to the financial sector. It would seem that the government is prepared to put this at risk on the basis of false financial projections and because of the intense lobbying from businesses that want content free of charge. A number of these businesses are structured to avoid paying full UK taxes.

In addition to the waiving of IP rights , moral rights are also in question . I have no wish to see my images used for dubious campaigns , and IÕm quite certain that parents will not want images of their children used for doubtful purposes by third parties . According to the report this may be avoided by registering every image with some as yet unspecified body that will have the right to licence images ( so called orphan works ) that are not registered for usage at their discretion and at their price . I would like to know how such a third party would establish the worth of one of my images without knowing the production costs or my business fee structure .

Also , the recommendations in the report are illegal under the Berne convention and present Human Rights legislation , neither of which are addressed .

I have no problem with the liberation of older works for non commercial use , but this report makes recommendations that allow for the free commercial exploitation of current naturally IP and morally protected images by sanctioned theft. . It is an immoral approach that flies in the face of current government "big society" claims.

I also note my earlier submission to the Hargreaves report that easily met the deadline was not published . This contained case histories of abuse of IP and the consequential damage to my business . I would be happy to forward this information again should it count as new evidence and not be lost in the system again.

5 September 2011