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Freelancing for sports photography has been common for a long time. Many photographers covering an event but only one may get the picture which illustrates the

Freelancing for sports photography has been common for a long time. Many photographers covering an event but only one may get the picture which illustrates the key point scored/etc well (because luck and skill both play a part). As to "why not replace that with photos from the public" - with press accreditation they can sit court-side and have space to use large lenses, monopods etc. All that equipment and access costs money, and it's not just a one-off cost either (on the equipment side competition also drives quality up meaning upgrading equipment relatively frequently is required, and it does wear out over time as well) - hence the cost of the "best" photos will always be higher than random crowd pics in a functioning market (which needs copyright protection).

rwmj 9y ago
This is the same sort of argument as "horses require expensive stabling, food and years of training". All true, but that didn't stop horses from becoming obsolete as a mode of transport, in the same way that I'm suggesting photo-journalists may become obsolete because technology and the internet makes their jobs less and less necessary. What happens when cameras get so good and cheap that photos from the crowd are as good as the ones from beside the court? Or we can place numerous nearly-free court-side cameras operated by AIs to capture everything?
- stinkytaco 9y ago
  It also doesn't mean that horses becoming obsolete means you can just use anyone's horse.
- tomatocracy 9y ago
  It's a market, same as any other, and there's a cost-quality curve same as many markets. That curve might move over time but it won't change the fact that the people who own the images get to decide on what terms they are used and the people who own the court get to decide who they let in with cameras and to where (and if they install your nice AI cameras to replace the freelance photojournalists they currently let in, that may well raise the market price because they've just created a nice little monopoly for themselves). I don't get to go and ride someone else's horse for free whenever I feel like it just because cars exist.

rwmj 9y ago

This is the same sort of argument as "horses require expensive stabling, food and years of training". All true, but that didn't stop horses from becoming obsolete as a mode of transport, in the same way that I'm suggesting photo-journalists may become obsolete because technology and the internet makes their jobs less and less necessary. What happens when cameras get so good and cheap that photos from the crowd are as good as the ones from beside the court? Or we can place numerous nearly-free court-side cameras operated by AIs to capture everything?

stinkytaco 9y ago
It also doesn't mean that horses becoming obsolete means you can just use anyone's horse.
tomatocracy 9y ago
It's a market, same as any other, and there's a cost-quality curve same as many markets. That curve might move over time but it won't change the fact that the people who own the images get to decide on what terms they are used and the people who own the court get to decide who they let in with cameras and to where (and if they install your nice AI cameras to replace the freelance photojournalists they currently let in, that may well raise the market price because they've just created a nice little monopoly for themselves). I don't get to go and ride someone else's horse for free whenever I feel like it just because cars exist.