Do you remember the Y2K fiasco? When everybody was panicking about the turn of the century and what would happen to all the computers that ran our businesses and lives. So many companies and wide boys jumped on the bandwagon and were charging worried businesses an absolute fortune to make ready their systems for when the clock turned midnight on 31st December 1999.
So you will know then how astute business people can see a way of making money out of an event and ripping off the public at the same time? Well what could be another one of these has cropped up.
The Royal Wedding Album has been set up by one Daniel Benjamin Pankhurst. His company, based in Switzerland, asks the public to send in their pictures of the day’s events, free of charge, to have the chance of being published in a book he is going to publish sometime after the royal wedding takes place on the 29th April 2011.
Alarm bells started ringing with a few of us when we looked at the terms & conditions and found that they were grabbing all rights to the images forever. On top of all that the unsuspecting public are expected to indemnify the company, Group Charlescannon, against any legal proceedings that may be taken against them as a result of the use of any picture.
So let me get this straight Ben: (this is how the MD of this company likes to be known)
- You want me to go out on the day, no matter where I am in the world, and get pictures of any event that is connected to the royal wedding?
- You want me to send YOU these images, free of charge, so YOU can decide whether or not YOU want to use them in YOUR book?
- You also want me to assign all the rights of these images to YOU for YOU to do whatever YOU want to?
- You cannot say whether or not I will always be credited for the images, where ever they appear? (unless of course someone starts legal proceedings and then you’ll credit me!)
- You want me to indemnify YOU and YOUR company against any legal proceedings that may arise from YOUR use of what WERE my images that now belong to YOU as I gave away all my moral rights and ownership?
- YEAH RIGHT! You must think I just got off the last banana boat matey!
So some of us started to apply pressure, via their Facebook page, posting civil and polite comments about how wrong this all was and trying to make people aware of what was being done to them.
Ben did amend the terms and conditions so that they appear slightly better than they were but they are still bad. There is still no mention of whether the original artist will be credited for any image used and there is still the mystery of whether or not the original artist will be paid if his/her images are sub-licensed to a third party.
To try and save a little face Ben also decided to announce that ALL, instead of just some, of the profits were going to be donated to a charity. Well that’s great I hear you say and yes most people would agree. However when you dig a little deeper you find that this guy’s company is not subject to regular review so does not have to declare if they do indeed pass all of the profits on. If they don’t declare we will never know, how convenient is that?
Since then anybody who made critical comments on their Facebook page had them deleted within a very short space of time. I even had my posting privileges removed so I can not make any further comments on their page. This after Ben stated that he welcomes comments! These were comments that asked questions of either Mr Ben himself or some of his likers. They were not of an insulting nature, in fact mine were genuine questions that I would have liked answers to. He has ignored any questions asked and instead has chosen to just delete them and hope we’ll go away. Well guess what Mr B? We don’t go away, we just get smarter and bigger. Burying your head in the sand is not, and never has been, the answer to anything and only a fool would do that and think it’s going to work.
I decided that if we cannot make comments on their Facebook page I would create my own and allow people to make their comments on the Royal Wedding Album page, get a screenshot of it and then post to mine for anybody who wants to see how Ben and his crew deal with people who might be a threat to his plans. I even invited Ben to come along and enter into a debate with us but so far he has ignored this as well.
My page is open to anybody who wishes to join in and anybody can post messages. What wont happen is people’s comments getting deleted just because it doesn’t suit me. I will remove posts that are offensive or have nothing to do with this action. Apart from that anything goes.
So what’s my page called? Well to make sure that anybody searching for Ben’s page will also come across mine I have called it “The Royal Wedding Album Don’t Do It” I love Facebook, it allows one to go into battle on an even playing field.
Anybody who would like to help out or has something to say is welcome to join in.
Interestingly there are a few anomalies on who’s who in the Daniel Benjamin Pankhurst/Group Charlescannon world. The website Bill of Rights for all creative people have found a few interesting facts about our Ben and his team and makes for good reading. Please go see what they have found out before you make up your mind which way you would like to go with this and certainly before you decide to send these guys any pictures. You can visit them here
I have just been passed some more information. If anybody was in any doubt as to whether or not this is just an innocent mistake on the part of Ben then this might help.
Jason Joyce, who is one of the authors working with Mr Ben on this project, also runs something called 123 Magazine and in it’s FAQ there is this:
Q: Will I get paid if my work is accepted?
A: No, but if you are accepted your work will be seen by thousands of potential clients all over the world.
Seems as though they’re not adverse to abusing the creativity of others for their own gain!
Thanks for sending me that information, you know who you are and I’ll not mention your name here 
And here’s the impressive looking empire that is behind this
Mr Ben's Offices
