It’s been many years since we first wrote about how stores like Walmart were dealing with ridiculous copyright laws by telling employees to simply not allow the printing of “professional-looking” photos, just in case they were covered by someone else’s copyright. Last year, a story popped up about a Walmart employee not letting a family print their own old family photos for this reason. It looks like we’ve got yet another such story. greenbird was the first of a few of you to send in this story about Walmart (yet again) not allowing the printing of family photos (this time for a funeral, which makes it that much more tragic), with copyright used as the reason. Once again, the employee made some dumb statements, such as saying “copyright is forever.”
But, just like last time, I have to say that we shouldn’t blame the Walmart employee, who is just trying to protect her job, and lives in a world where copyright maximalists constantly push this sort of message. It’s not her fault, it’s the fault of current copyright law, which makes such things seems reasonable, and the ongoing effort by lobbyists and politicians to only push copyright law further in that direction.
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