A minor scandal is brewing in the lacrosse world this week as people are realizing why the silhouette image in the new Warrior Venus advertisement looks so familiar. It turns out the picture from which the silhouette was made appeared in the July/August Lacrosse Magazine in a story about the 2001 NCAA Women's final thriller between Maryland and Georgetown. The picture was of graduated 2001 senior Georgetown star Sheehan Stanwick. The photographer, Kevin Tucker told E-Lacrosse that the photo was not taken from the magazine but from a disk he sent to Warrior's ad firm under an agreement to use the picture for ads, so copyright infringement, in this case, is not an issue, as was earlier reported to us by our sources. But the story doesn't end there. Ethical issues with the picture's use still abound.
The Kevin Tucker photo of Stanwick with her Apex followed by the Warrior ad for the Venus.
Even though the Warrior Venus advertisement used a picture that was purchased from the photographer fairly and legally, the issue of ethics in photo use and advertising is still very much in question. Most condemning about the use of the Sheehan Stanwick photo by Warrior was that the head used in the picture is not the Warrior head being sold in the ad, but the popular deBeer Apex, used by Sheehan Stanwick last year. How hard would it have been to shoot a picture of some woman hoisting the right stick if a silouette was all they needed? Attempting to determine the motivation for such an inane deception is a nagging curiosity, we must admit. It also seems that the silouette of the Apex was such a good match for the Venus that the decorative inside wall design was the only thing that needed to be changed. This prompts lax people we have spoken with to wonder if the picture was copied before or after the head was. We'll probably never know.
One of the top lacrosse photographers, Tucker, did say that infringement is an issue overall in the industry and while things are getting better, he's currently out about 5 thousand dollars in lacrosse copywright infringement losses over the last ten years. Pictures from Lacrosse Magazine and other publications have been stolen for commercial use by lacrosse entities for years. E-Lacrosse photos show up almost monthly in someone's camp brochure or commercial web site. E-Lacrosse has a "steal our gifs" policy for non-commercial use, but the constant commercial abuse drives our photographers crazy and discourages them from shooting lacrosse which typically pays less anyway. One of our top lax shooters was ripped off by a major lax manufacturer using a college lacrosse shot in a very popular and recurring ad for years without compensation. A commercial lax web site, Lax.com recently used photographer Bill Welch's photo to silhouette as their logo, of all things. The picture was of Duke's Scott Diggs and appeared in the May 1999 Lacrosse Magazine. Shortly thereafter the Lax.Com logo was born. We brought the apparent improper use to Welch's attention while doing this story and he says that he will be in touch with the abusing company regarding compensation and penalty for stealing the picture. There are certainly many guilty parties in the lacrosse world, some of photo deception and some of infringement. There are hundreds of other examples, from web sites to television ads. The problem is huge, for such a small sport.
The courts typically award three times the usual licensing fee when a photo is stolen for commercial use. On occasion, over the last few years, much larger awards have been given when it can be proven that the abuser knew precisely where the photo came from and that their intention was to steal. The seeming trend of stealing photos for commercial lacrosse use is a surprise to some of us who see lacrosse as one of the last bastions of sportsmanship. We don't expect that a lacrosse coach or player is trying to get away with cheating all the time because we share their love of the game and the fair competition it breeds. But somehow, many businesses in lacrosse have lost sight of that ethic and the definition of cheating, as it applies to their lives and work as "adults". It needs to stop or we may lose most of our best lacrosse photographers.
The Bill Welch photo followed by the Lax.Com ad with the lifted logo.
