Editorial

Can You Or Can’t You Publish Pictures Taken At The 2012 Olympics?

Pictures from sporting events can be spectacular. Most of the time, professional photographers capture those “moment in time” photos but at times, amateurs can also capture snapshots of events that pros are not there to witness. The 2012 Summer Olympics organizers cannot, it seems, give a straight answer on whether photos taken at the event can be posted on social media sites and or sold by the photographers, amateurs or pros. Photographers were angered at what seems to be a ban on posting photos that they take at the 2012 Summer Olympics onto social sites (the prohibition is printed right there on the ticket) but the organizers reversed themselves by saying that only “commercial” photography were banned. So both amateur and professional photographers cannot sell or earn any money from the pictures they take at the 2012 Olympics? Not only is this commercially crass, but it is also asinine. Imagine if companies declared that, from now on, any photos of their people, trucks, buildings, events, etc. cannot be used commercially. We simply would’t be able to report the news anymore.