Sheer Lunacy, Brought to you (in part) by Lucent

The company Lucent (Euronext Paris: ALU, NYSE: ALU) has hundreds of patented, trademarked, and copyrighted innovations and creations that they leverage to the maximum extent possible, employing thousands. We have Lucent, indirectly, to thank for underwriting what is essentially a rights giveaway. One of their IT Managers - you know, the guy who makes all this patented and trademarked equipment work, Sander van de Wijngaert to "thank" for diminishing the value of copyrighted works.

It seems that Sanders is proud of his 100th sale of an image, for a gross income of $26.35. (Above right is a peek behind the veil of Shutterstock's photographer management screens) Yet he's found a bit of criticism flowing his way. His response?

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Over at DPreview, Sanders defended himself against criticism, saying "I don't do it for the money....it's more the fun checking every day to see how many images I've sold." Genius. And they let this guy manage even a few square inches of internet access?

Over at SportsShooter, one person made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion - "That's not so bad. I would only need to license 6900 pictures to pay for my new D300. Sign me up!"

Here is what his mantra should be:

"First they came for the musician's copyright, and I did not complain. Then they came for the movie maker's copyright and I did not complain. Then they came for the photographer's copyright, I not only didn't complain, I participated in it's devaluation. Then they came for the IP copyright, and I did not complain, then my company laid me off because they had no more IP rights to leverage so that I had a job, and now I don't. I should have better respected the value of IP and copyright in the first place."

Guess what then? By that time, he won't be able to sustain himself on $26.35 total sales for his best images before taxes, (and NL taxes are much higher than in the US) and he'll wonder what hit him. According to his website, he offers wedding photography, model portfolios, and retouching, as well.

The saying "there's a sucker born every minute" applies here. The problem is, he was born so many minutes ago that he's aged not into a fine wine but a scourge on the profession he says he does because "photography is for me a the ideal form of relaxation." (that's a Google translation of his site).

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UPDATE: Sanders notes on DPreview that he "left Lucent months ago". Since the photographs were uploaded over a year ago, the relationship between he and Lucent was in place at the time that he created the images and posted them online. He says "... and they knew I was into (paid) photography." Really? Well, you've not updated your professional affiliation as it is listed on the web. Sanders goes on: "...I agree there is not much money to earn...unless you do this fulltime which I don't." Actually, with contributors like yourself around, even those that do it full-time aren't earning much money, certainly not as much as they should.

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