Shoot for the Stars!

The doors were closed to entries for the second-ever Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year, the global celebration of the art of food photography, at midnight on Thursday 31 January.

"Entries kept on coming in right to the last second," says Caroline Kenyon, Director of Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year. "We are really delighted to announce that we have trounced last year's entry figures by an astonishing 70%, with 5500 images coming from across the world."

Not only have the number of entries gone up exponentially, but also Twitter followers have doubled, as have website visits with visitors coming to the awards website from over 140 countries.

2013 Sony World Photography Awards
Professional and Open Shortlists Announced

The World Photography Organisation this week revealed the shortlists for the Professional, Open and Youth categories of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards.

In a year that saw over 122,000 entries from 170 countries – the highest number of submissions to date - the judges have selected a shortlist of photographs that stood out beyond all others for their impressive high quality, originality and modern appeal. Topics ranged from haunting shots of the Syrian conflict to the Obama presidential campaign; an intimate study of cinema-goers in Kabul to quirky and witty shots of the animal kingdom.

Your Time to Act!

Please make every effort to contact key Peers NOW and make the following points:

1. Copyright is a property right, not a regulation. Additional exceptions to copyright, commercial orphan works schemes and extended collective licensing will seriously damage our ability to trade our property and are anti-growth.
2. The Government's assumption that the ERRB measures will stimulate growth is erroneous and has been comprehensively disproved. More info here (pdf).
3. An unprecedented coalition of creative industry organisations is opposed to the ERRB measures. More info here.
4. The Copyright Hub (a Hargreaves Review recommendation which the Government accepted and is currently in development) promises to solve most of the 'problems' the ERRB purports and will actually stimulate growth. It has strong support from photographers. More info here.
5. Halt all changes to UK copyright law until the Copyright Hub has proved its worth.

Key Peers to contact:

• Viscount Younger of Leckie, Minister in charge of the ERRB in the Lords, and Junior Business Minister in charge of the Intellectual Property Office
• Lord Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat lead, ERRB copyright clauses
• Lord Stevenson, Labour lead, ERRB copyright clauses
• Lord Black
• Baroness Buscombe
• Lord Grade
• Baroness Hayter
• Lord Jenkin
• Lord Lucas
• Lord Pannick

International Media & Archive Consortium warns of Judicial Review over UK Government plans to weaken copyright

Stop43:

Excerpt:

A consortium of the world’s largest news agencies, commercial licensing companies and commercial audiovisual archives has today called on the UK Government to rethink its plans to weaken UK copyright law and its use of secondary legislation. The Government’s proposals are being implemented through the Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Bill, currently being debated in the House of Lords.