Foo Fighters are slated to return to the stage on Saturday night after frontman Dave Grohl broke his leg live on stage last month, but the band have now been criticised by a Washington D.C. newspaper which believes the band’s live photography contract is unfair and exploitative.
As Spin reports, the Washington City Paper, who were set to photograph Foo Fighters’ Saturday night Independence Day/ 20th anniversary blowout show — featuring the likes of Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Heart, Joan Jett and LL Cool J — have published a blog post entitled, “Why We’re Not Photographing the Foo Fighters.”
In their post, Washington City Paper say Foo Fighters’ photography contract “to be blunt, sucks”. The paper has shared a copy of the contract, which can be viewed in full below, and says in its blog post:
“If we signed it, we would have agreed to: the band approving the photos which run in the City Paper; only running the photos once and with only one article; and all copyrights would transfer to the band.
“Then, here’s the fun part, the band would have ‘the right to exploit all or a part of the Photos in any and all media, now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, in perpetuity, in all configurations’ without any approval or payment or consideration for the photographer.
“That is exploitation of photographers, pure and simple… By signing that contract, the band could then use the creative work of our photographer in their future marketing materials or to resell them through their site.”
Washington City Paper says Foo Fighters’ management told them the contract is “standard”, and is put in place to “protect the band”. Washington City Paper believes both these reasons are untrue.
It’s unclear as to whether or not members of Foo Fighters know the details of their photography contracts, but Washington City Paper is planning to pay members of the band’s Saturday audience for photos taken from within the crowd, rather than agreeing to the Foo’s contract.
“And we won’t ask you to sign over the copyright or your first born, either,” the paper adds. Burn.
In a similar incident, Taylor Swift was recently criticised by The Irish Times for placing “exceedingly restrictive” copyright demands on photographers at her shows — something with the publication says “has become increasingly common in the live music business in recent years”.
Catch Foo Fighters’ photography contract in full, below.
Gallery: Foo Fighters @ ANZ Stadium, Sydney 26.02.15 / Photos: Paul Cush
Foo Fighters’ Photography Contract (Via Washington City Paper)
Foo Fighters, Rise Against, Delta Riggs - Sydney, ANZ Stadium 26/02/15
-
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney06
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney30
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney29
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney28
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney27
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney26
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney25
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney24
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney23
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney22
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney21
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney20
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney18
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney17
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney15
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney13
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney12
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney11
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney10
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney09
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney08
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney07
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney05
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney04
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney03
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney02
Foo Fighters -
03FooFightersFooFightersLiveInSydney01
Foo Fighters -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney15
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney14
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney13
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney12
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney11
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney10
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney07
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney06
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney05
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney03
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney02
Rise Against -
02RiseAgainstFooFightersLiveInSydney01
Rise Against -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney15
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney14
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney13
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney12
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney11
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney10
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney08
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney07
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney06
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney04
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney03
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney02
Delta Riggs -
01DeltaRiggsFooFightersLiveInSydney01
Delta Riggs