City
Morning Brew: Some Garbage to be Cleared, Man Beaten to Death by 25 Men, Ease His Pain (Tell Him to Curse)
Photo: "hat man" by torontocitylife, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
The Ingram Transfer Station has been accepting garbage 24/7 since the strike began but with the unions slowing down access, some people have just been (illegally) dumping their waste outside the boundaries of the facility. The unions have blocked city attempts to clear the trash bags but now the province is blocking the union and letting the city safely clear up the garbage pile. Hopefully it's a perpetual injunction as it won't take long for the pile to re-form if the strike goes on another 3 weeks.
The show must go on! Caribana organizers are working to make sure the city strike and one of Toronto's biggest summer festivals mesh well: Tomorrow's launch will be moved to Yonge-Dundas Square, there may be two other venue changes, and the festival will need to hire cleanup crews. CBC Metro Morning Friday host Matt Galloway asked one festival organizer if the unions will picket certain events. The answer was an unconvincing 'no,' but how do you picket something like Caribana? I say let loose, join the party, and sign a deal.
Kristian Thanapalan was just a 23 year old who wanted to study at York U and play volleyball in the wee hours Friday night (Saturday morning), but as many as 25 other guys had another plan: beat Thanapalan to death with baseball and cricket bats. If police can make any more sense of this than me they're not saying anything... at least until their press conference later today.
Ouch. 9. Ouch. 1. Ouch. 1. That's about how it must have gone for the 28 year-old who fell into the well of a container car at the CP rail yard and found himself dragged 6 kilometres as he called the police. The mind boggles at the thought of how this would happen, but it starts to come into focus when you realize alcohol played a crucial role. Of course, so did the doctor who reattached the man's foot. I guess it's all the more reason not to drink in rail yards.
Hot damn, some good news for a change. This really is the good shit: new research findings suggest swearing does a body good. It seems dropping an 'f-bomb' helps reduce pain (tell that to the guy dragged by a train!), but The Star can't quite connect the value of John Baird's recent 'fuck off' comment.
Lots of stuff going on last weekend. Perhaps most ironic was the 10th birthday party at the CN Tower for SpongeBob SquarePants. The city could use a good sponge bath right now, and again after the garbage is collected.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/sniderscion/sets/72157621334326374/
As it happens, I met the gentleman with the cart the other day.
He's an affable fellow, and I enjoyed a conversation with him about all that goes into stocking his cart to maximize his "spread" and ensure he's got a little something for everything - all the while keeping it mobile by human power alone.
Yet here he is, labelled simply 'hat man', as if that were his title and station in life all at once. I doubt very much if he signed a model release, and maybe that's being nit-picky... but how hard would it have been to ask for, and use his name?
To me titles for photos are labels, hat man or C0463, it doesn't matter. The title cant' describe what is in the image.
It took you 4-5 lines to describe the dude. Don't expect a title to do it.
The simple fact is, the subject of a photo has a right to be consulted on its use and in fact, has the right to demand permission, if not payment when the image is used in a commercial context.
Yeah, the web has made us all much more lackadaisical about this but I suggest this case amounts to belittling the subject.
The guys name means little, and honestly the picture is kind of pointless with no context. If this was a picture of a clown with balloons, the title would be Clown or Balloon man, not Stephen.
Hat guy is more descriptive, relevant and meaningful as a title. It's in no way belittleing, in public context we see people by their occupations and roles they serve in society.
Also, editorial usage of people requires no photo release, that the beauty that allows for street photography.
Where we disagree: editorial usage of people requires no photo release. You're not illustrating a news story, you're just popping in content, and since you sell ads alongside it, that would be commercial use.
The gentleman in question would be within his rights to ask that it be removed from Flickr and your site. He is the owner of his own image.
Commercial use would be using the image in ads, or selling as stock (again wire services are exempt). This is also limited to public spaces.
Now people can take cases to court and argue this if a certain line is crossed.
This photo shows a large public area and illustrates the busy street, it serves a purpose, if poorly.
I'm, not Josh. I always post here under this handle. I don't think Josh would dis his own selection of image.
Lastly think of celebrities, their image can be worth millions, but when papparazi snap their shots they can earn tons of money of those and those people can do nothing about it, no model release.
I think )and it's IMHO at this point) that it comes down to significance, polticians and actors, musicians are obvious, but there is no celebrity card. The ice cold beer guy becomes news, so in the eye of the public he is notable. Dundas square is a notable public space being there means you will be in thousands of tourist videos and personal pictures, the you generation media is everytwhere, blogs, facebook. As long as there is no slander as in posting a picture and saying "look at this dumb asshole" it seems innocent enough. Thats why media does the silverman helps kind of stuff. But in those cases they have to be sure they don't slander.
It would be better with more info, sure, but all MB photos only list the photo title, as chosen by the photographer who put it in flickr. Sometimes there isn't one. You can always click on the flickr name above to go to the photo and leave some comments for the photographer there (and see if there is additional description); s/he may not even know their image was used.
You may look me up in the phone book under Man, H.