BY DAVE PARRO
According to a Beacon News sports story today, the Illinois High School Association plans to start denying entrance to news photographers at state tournaments who refuse to sign waivers regulating the use of their images.
The IHSA, a quasi-government state actor, wants to operate like the NCAA or professional sports leagues and control the coverage of state finals. But the difference is that those are private entities not funded by taxpayers. The IHSA is supported by member schools, most of which are public, and the teams do not generate revenue to support themselves. That means they rely on tax dollars to exist.
Is this a First Amendment issue? The IHSA doesn't think so and wants to grant exclusive access to public sporting events to a commercial photography company. The Beacon News plans to run an editorial Thursday blasting the IHSA for its ill-conceived and possibly unconstitutional policy.
Here's an excerpt from the editorial:
... In the escalating battle between the IHSA and the Illinois Press Association over the rights to images at state final events, the not-for-profit organization is vowing to withhold press credentials from photographers who won’t sign waivers promising their newspapers won’t use pictures on the secondary market. The IHSA is particularly concerned about newspapers selling photo reprints.Our photographers will not be signing the agreements. Not only do we think the IHSA has overstepped its authority by contracting with Visual Image Photography Inc. for exclusive rights to photo reprints and giving the company better access to events, but Beacon News employees are not allowed to sign legal documents on behalf of the Sun-Times Media Group. That means our coverage will suffer, and our successful local athletes will not get the coverage they deserve. ...
As a member of this community, we have been covering prep sports since their inception because we support our young athletes and want to recognize their accomplishments. Now the IHSA, a state entity, wants to control the coverage we’ve been providing for more than a century. ...
Read more about the IPA position here and the IHSA position here.
UPDATE (1/31): Read the full editorial here.
How do high school sports fans and athletes view this looming showdown?
From the story....
What this means to you
The Beacon News and other newspapers could be precluded from shooting state finals events. This means photos of local teams and athletes would not appear in the newspaper or on the Web Site, and would not be available for sale
Well that isn't really accurate, is it. The Beacon could sign the waver and just not be able to sell the photos on the secondary market correct.
If you signed the waver you could have a picture of someone shooting a game winning basket on the web and in the paper you couldn't sell prints or a poster, correct?
I can understand you guys not wanting to sign the waver due to freedom and revenue issues.
The IHSA is basically a not-for-profit organization that is suppose to support HS atheltics. They shouldn't be getting involved busiess matters that involve copyrights. They should just promote their athletic competetions that's all. Keep it simple, folks.
As a parent who attended numerous IHSA state cross country and track meets over the years, I always checked what was available through the Beacon or the Naperville Sun before purchasing pictures through the photographer the IHSA hired for a few reasons.
1. The prices the IHSA official photographer charged were higher than the newspaper.
2. If you have ever been to a state cross country meet, you know how crazy it can be. THe local papers always seemed to make a point of getting a photo of the local runners. So even if a picture of my son wasn't published in the paper, it was often available on the website. The IHSA photographer randomly takes pictures, so there was no guarantee that one would be of my son. And in order to find one I would have to look through more than 1000 photos to find it. At the state track meet, the official photographers usually took photos of the top three runners, but often missed the ones in the middle. Again the local newspapers made sure to get pictures of the local runners. So my son who was all state (top 9) in the 800m had an action photo on the newspaper website, but not in the official photographers links.
3. The newspaper photographers usually edited, cropped and refined the photos before they appeared on the website. The official photographers did not. So I was able to get a better picture from the newspaper.
4. The newspapers always allowed me to pay to download a digital copy. That way I could print it at home instead of waiting weeks for copies in the mail. I could put it in his scrapbook immediately after the event. It also meant that I could do my own cropping and editing, so if it was a picture of a group of runners, I could crop it to just my son and his teammates if I wanted.
Yes we always took pictures ourselves too, but the access for parent photographers is not the same. We could not be down at the finish line to take a photo of our son crossing it the way the newspaper and official photographers could.
So I appreciate the work the Beacon and Naperville Sun photographers did. Their focus on the local athletes was much appreciated. I think it is an absolute shame that parents will now be limited to buying photos from the "official photographer." I would not have some of the pictures I have of my son's running career if I had been limited by these new rules at that time.
If you you would like to get photos of an event for which you will not have such waivers hanging over your head, come on out to Marmion on Saturday, February 23, 2008.
Commencing about 7:00 A.M. and running all day you can watch great kids doing great things.
It is the Earl J. Buchan Drill Meet sponsored by the Marmion Drill Team, Flannigan Rifles.
They start in the morning with the solo performances and finish in the afternoon with the exhibition squad and platoon performances.
Schools from as far away as Louisville, Kentucky will be there.
It is fun, it is free and there is good food at reasonable prices.
Flannigan Rifles is a national championship contender team placing fourth over all at the national competition in Daytona Beach two consecutive years. Their exhibition squad and platoons both placed first last year at the national competition, only the fourth school in the history of the national competition to do that.
Yes my son is on the team, commander actually. So hate me for being proud of these fine young men, good young men doing good things. We do not see enough of that in the news these days.
Believe it or not, it is very fun to watch. We just finished with the Purdue Army Drill Meet which we won for the eight consecutive year.