My maternity leave from portraits will last from baby’s arrival until May 15, 2012. I will be accepting spring & summer portrait bookings after May 15, however, these sessions will ONLY be available at the studio/our beautiful farm until after October 1, 2012.

Please plan accordingly!

I am also planning a fall portrait marathon in Vermilion for September 18! Same price, same location, same contact information.

The office will be closed December 24-26, December 31, January 1 & 2. Service will be sporadic December 27 – 30. Business as usual returns January 3!

http://users.trytel.com/~pbkerr/copyright.html

COPYRIGHT LAW IN CANADA

This article gives a general description of copyright law in Canada. The information contained in this article is of a general nature only and is not intended to cover the entire area of law relating to copyright. Furthermore, this information is not directed toward a particular factual situation, and does not constitute legal advice. If you have any questions of a legal nature, or of how the law applies in a particular situation, please consult with a lawyer.

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Canadian copyright law is governed by the Copyright Act, which protects original literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works. A partial list of works which are entitled to copyright protection in Canada includes: books, newspapers, dictionaries, manuals, catalogues, magazines, pamphlets, computer software, paintings, drawings, design trade-marks, sculptures, architectural works, engravings, dramatic works, photographs, films, videos, scripts, maps, lyrics and musical works.

One very significant right granted to the owner of Canadian copyright in a work, is the exclusive right to reproduce the work, (or any substantial part of the work) in any material form whatever.

For example, the owner of copyright in a book has the right to stop others from making copies of the book, (or any substantial part of the book), whether the copying is by way of a commercial printer, a photocopy machine, or by way of a computer image/text scanner.

In addition to acquiring the exclusive right to copy the work, the owner of copyright in a work also receives an entire “bundle” of rights, some of which are specific to the type of work in question. For example, in the case of a dramatic work, copyright includes the right to convert the dramatic work into a novel. In the case of computer software, it includes the right to rent the software to others. Each different type of work has its own bundle of copyrights.

Copyright comes into existence automatically, at the time the work was created, and, in the case of most works, it continues until the end of the calendar year in which the author of the work dies (regardless of whether the author has sold or assigned the copyright in the work or not), and continues for an additional period of 50 years. There are some notable exceptions to this rule however. One such exception relates to photographs, which are protected by copyright from the time the photograph was taken, up until the end of the calendar year in which the photograph was taken , and for an additional period of 50 years (that is, the termination date of copyright protection for photographs is linked to the date the photograph was taken, and not the date of the photographer’s death).

“Moral” rights are also protected under Canadian copyright law. Moral rights include the author’s right to be associated with the work by name, or pseudonym and the right to remain anonymous, and include the author’s right to the integrity of the work (that is, the author’s right to stop the work from being distorted, mutilated or modified, to the prejudice of the author’s honour or reputation, or from being used in association with a product, service, cause or institution).

Moral rights remain with the author of a work, even where the work, or the copyright in the work, has been sold or assigned. Moral rights continue to exist in a work for the same length of time as do the other copyrights in the work in question.

Copyright in a work may be assigned or licensed to others. All assignments and licenses of copyright must be in writing to be valid. The mere transfer of physical possession of a work does not thereby include an assignment of copyright in the work.

While moral rights may not be assigned, these rights may be waived by the author, in whole, or in part. A mere assignment or license of copyright in a work does not, in and of itself, amount to a waiver of moral rights in the work. It is therefore recommended that, where possible, all assignments and licenses of copyright include a written waiver of the author’s moral rights.

Each work in which copyright subsists should be marked with a notice in the following form: “© Smith and Company, 1996″. That is, the notice should display the copyright symbol ©, followed by the name of the owner of copyright, followed by the year in which the work was published. This notice is to be displayed in such manner and location as to give reasonable notice of a claim of copyright in the work.

Copyright may be registered in Canada at the Canadian Copyright Office located in Ottawa/Hull. While registration of copyright in a work is not required in Canada, registration does provide benefits to the copyright owner, and is recommended.

When registering copyright in Canada, there is no need to file a copy of the work with the Canadian Copyright Office (in fact, the Canadian Copyright Office will return any works which anyone attempts to file with them!). It is therefore possible to obtain a copyright registration in Canada without having to disclose any of the confidential information which may be contained in the work (although you will have to disclose the work’s title).

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip B. Kerr is a Canadian lawyer, patent and trademark agent, and a partner in the firm of Kerr & Nadeau, whose law practice is restricted to patent, trademark, copyright and computer law. He was called to the bar in 1986.

I finished painting the boudoir room … (photos from August 11)

I love Kijiji! I picked up this antique French provincial couch and chair for the meeting room in Lloydminster the other day.

Main door, sanded and filled and ready for priming!

Studio room, in the midst of drywall repair. There are hundreds of spots where the top coat of paint has peeled off the layer below it (a good example of why you don’t paint over a high-gloss paint without sanding it first), so each spot gets hit with the palm sander. Then there’s all the areas where the original drywall job was done incorrectly, all the spots where the nails used to hang the drywall are coming out …. so yeah, a lot of drywall repair!

Meeting room … possibly the room that will be requiring the most work! The paint in this room is chipping/flaking/peeling on most of the surfaces, probably because of temperature fluctuations from the wood stove back when it was still in use, and of course, from age. There will be a lot of sanding in this room! I am planning on putting a textured paintable wallpaper on the top portion of the wall, repainting the wainscotting and painting the ceiling. If you notice a cat in some of the photos – there’s also a litter of kittens and their momma in here – 13 days old today! The momma cat catches any mice that come in through the open windows and under the door, which still needs weather stripping. She’s a great mouser.

The two panes on the window that have paint on them are ones that had to be replaced, hence the reason they didn’t get taped off. I actually removed both these panes last night and replaced one of them … and then promptly broke the other piece of glass. So, back to Lakeland Glass I shall go this week! Good thing glass is relatively cheap …

The big blank wall (the one without the chimney) will be receiving wallpaper.

This is the boudoir room – it’s up next for painting! It just has one coat on here. Boring, I know – just white – but it’s great for photos and makes these small rooms seem so much bigger and brighter! This room may or may not get wallpaper on one of the walls. I’ll have to see how it looks once the floor is refinished and the furniture is in!

Hey, you. Yeah, you. The wedding guest with the digital rebel, kit lens and pop up flash, wearing the can’t-miss brightly colored shirt, who keeps edging into every shot of the bride/groom coming up/down the aisle. You seem to be at every wedding in one form or another.

Please, for the love of all that is good and right in the world, SIT DOWN. We have paid professional photographers here. We were specially selected, hired and paid by the bride and groom to capture their wedding. We were hired based on our style, experience, expertise and consistency. The bride and groom have given us the honor of photographing their wedding, and have invested a considerable amount into ensuring they will have high-quality, professional wedding photos.

I understand that you want to take a photo or two for your own scrapbook. But you leaning way out into the aisle, stepping in front of the paid professionals, on the off chance that you might fluke out and get a half-decent shot, is screwing up the shots of those of us who WILL get amazing images. Your friends/family, the bride and groom, will not appreciate seeing your brightly colored personage standing out in the aisle in every shot of them during the processional and recessional.

Please show RESPECT to your friends/family who are getting married and behave like a guest should – by observing and enjoying their vows. You getting your shot is NOT more important than their wedding day. By all means, snap a photo from your seat, but beyond that, leave the photos to us. Trust us – we’re professionals. It’s what we do. It’s all we do.

Sincerely,

All professional photographers around the world

These photos are from April 16th …

Future dressing room with most of the stuff gone …

The beautiful hardwood hidden under that nasty lino!

And here’s a to-scale floor plan with furnishings inserted …

If you’re not up to speed on what I’m working on, you can see past blog posts about it here and here.

April 5th:Future meeting/viewing room. All the garbage-junk has been removed, just awaiting removal of the good-junk by other family members.

Future meeting/viewing room

Future studio room

Old cream separators

April 6th: Finished cleaning out the junk from the studio room, swept the floors and window sills.

This is a tiny little storage room, so it will probably just stay a storage room and won’t receive any drastic changes.

This is a tiny little storage room, so it will probably just stay a storage room and won’t receive any drastic changes.

Updated floor plan with new room purposes:

Design palette for meeting/viewing room …