Last Saturday, I went to a Society of Professional Journalists conference. Earlier, I told you about the piece I edited that took a first-place award there. That’s why I went, but I learned a thing or two in the sessions.
Freelancing
- Once you actually start making some money, set up an LLC. Basically, all you have to do is file the paperwork and have a separate checking account. An LLC gives you liability protections and group insurance rates.
Media Law
We talked a lot about this Twitpic…
This is one of the first pictures of the "Miracle on the Hudson." Photo by Janis Krums.
A lot of news organizations snatched it up, but just because you put a photo on public display doesn’t mean you give up copyright. The web is not public domain. The photographer ended up billing a few newsrooms for using his picture, and many paid up. Be careful about pulling pics from the web.
Ethics
I’m so glad to see this room full of people who care about ethics because out there, they don’t think we do. (Nerissa Young)
I wonder why folks outside the biz think most journalists are ethically-unsound monsters. We had quite the debate about whether to publish two photographs, and most were pretty caring.