Davey Winder
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 20:45
IT Industry -
Market
Page 3 of 4
The letter from the BBC's David Larner continues: "As you
may know, studio images like this are achieved by a colour separation
overlay process whereby a green or blue background is replaced
electronically by a still image such as a city centre skyline, or a
live camera shot such as Big Ben which can been seen showing the
current time behind interviewees contributing live to news programmes
from our Westminster studio.
The team in Birmingham recently installed new
CSO equipment and before it was fully functional, the engineers had to
test the cameras and screens and therefore needed an example image to
use as a background.
An internet search for images of the Birmingham skyline brought up a
photo of the city centre (via a website not connected with your Flickr
page) and this was then loaded into the system just as an example
backdrop to internally test and calibrate the new equipment.
It was never meant to be used in broadcasts but unfortunately due to an
oversight, this internal test image was not deleted before the system
was brought fully online.
This is obviously very unfortunate and we apologise most sincerely for
this error. The image has been immediately removed from our system to
prevent any future reuse.
I hope that by explaining the background to how this situation came
about you will see that it certainly was not deliberate. I would note
the website from which the image was sourced appeared to make no
reference to copyright and had no facility for copyright to be enquired
about or validated, although I understand that the image has now been
removed from that website.
Nevertheless, we recognise that your image was used on air and would
like to offer you a payment of £75 by way of a usage fee on the
understanding that this represents final settlement of the matter. If
you are agreeable, I would also ask that your image entitled "bbc news
24" on Flickr at
www.flickr.com/photos/23993287@N00/3120642216 be removed along with the
comment "why is the BBC using this copyrighted photo of mine on news
items" attached to the "Birmingham Skyline" image at
www.flickr.com/photos/23993287@N00/2649168967.
If our proposal is acceptable, perhaps you could contact me personally
via <email snipped> and I can arrange for matters to be
progressed.
In conclusion, thank you once again for bringing this matter to our
attention and allowing me to investigate. Please be assured that this
matter has been taken seriously and alongside the immediate action
taken to remove the image, senior management will be speaking to those
involved to ensure that they have a full understanding of copyright
issues for the future."
Read the final conclusion to this sorry tale, which comes complete with
a happy ending for Mike, along with the BBC's comments to our
questioning earlier today, on page 4.
STORY CONTINUES
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