Porn scandal forces Burning Man image crackdown
ORGANISERS of a popular US festival have been criticised over their strict photography rules, implemented in a bid to stop images of nude participants ending up on porn websites.
Under the rules many deem “heavy-handed”, organisers of the famous Burning Man festival claim to hold the copyright for images and videos taken at the event and may request the removal of any images they don’t approve of on any website.
Wild: The Burning Man festival
The organisers say the rules are designed to protect the rights of those who attend the event, which is currently in full swing at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, US.
Many participants like to shed their clothes at the liberating event, which attracts around 50,000 revellers each year in a celebration of “community, participation, self-expression and self-reliance”, and involves burning down a tall man-like structure.
However, Burning Man spokeswoman Andie Grace said the organisers are concerned that photographs of naked female festival-goers have appeared on porn websites in the last few years.
"There are a lot of nude people out here, and this protects the school teacher from Iowa who doesn't wasn't want to appear on a porn site," Ms Grace said.
Burning Man has issues five successful takedown notices to four independent websites, and YouTube, in the past year, Ms Grace said.
"Three of those were porn-related sites containing nude photos that clearly violated the participant’s privacy; the other two were commercial advertisements for unrelated products."
The US Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has criticised Burning Man over the photo restrictions.
"We do empathize with Burning Man Organization (BMO)’s desire to preserve the festival’s noncommercial character and to protect the privacy interests of ticket-holders. But by granting itself ownership of your creative works and forbidding fair uses of its trademarks, BMO is using the 'fine print' to give itself the power of fast and easy online censorship.
“Those Terms and Conditions include a remarkable bit of legal sleight-of-hand: as soon as 'any third party displays or disseminates' your photos or videos in a manner that the BMO doesn’t like, those photos or videos become the property of the BMO.”
The Burning Man terms and conditions also strip attendees of their trademark fair use rights, the spokesperson said.
”The ticket terms forbid any use of Burning Man trademarks on any website, which means that ticket-holders can’t label their photos 'Burning Man 2009' or even use the words 'Burning Man' on their Facebook walls or Twitter updates.”
The rules have provoked widespread debate on various websites, with many participants outraged at what they see as a restriction to their rights, while others want to protect their privacy.
“Where does BMORG get off claiming copyright of other people's work?” photographer Pereubu said on blogging website BoingBoing.
“My concern here is that there appears to be a lot of potential for overreach with this action – all in order to stop a few bad actors and placate the people whose inner prude is only silenced for that one week out of the year,” a Burning Man participant wishing to be known as MDH said.
Others are supportive of the rights of those wanting to let their hair down at the event.
“Burning Man is a private event... All the event is asking is that you take and use photographs in ways we are comfortable with… this is our event. Play with us consensually or go home,” Burning Man participant Sioen, who has been attending since 1996, said.
“You could argue that if you don't want to be photographed in public doing something 'wrong' you shouldn't do it in public. That kind of defeats the entire purpose of this private event we call Burning Man. This is one of the few places where you can feel liberated wearing your crotch flame thrower,” another blogger called Rindan said.
Ms Grace insists the company is simply trying to protect participants.
“Yes, our rules about photography are different from the outside world – but isn’t BRC’s unique environment what makes Burning Man transformative in the first place?
“We feel strongly that Burning Man can and should be a place where there are controls to prevent this sort of surreptitious exploitation, and we act to incite quick response to protect that privacy."
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