A long overdue update

Nothing ever goes as planned

Yes, it has been a very long time since the last post…not that any of them ever came quickly to begin with…

Almost nothing I have discussed in the historical core suite to this point, and what is yet to come, had legal consequences. But at some point, the evolution of visual forms of expression, did and will continue, to develop legal issues directly related to photography and imposters. It occurred to me that some people might be asking, “Why do we need a legal definition of photography. If it hasn't happened so far, why do we need one now?”

The answer is more obvious to me now than on the day I decided to take on this project. Back on the that day in Dec 2022, I foresaw in an instant what was coming and what would happen in the future. It all hasn’t happened yet, but what has is of no surprise. I have no doubt that all will eventually come true, and probably with a few additional twists no one, even the perpetrators of all this, saw comng. A few have already occurred and I’m sure more will follow, but these are merely derivative complications.

The copyright issue is front-and-center in some litigation in progress, some of which have had some interim rulings on particular parts of their respective cases. Intellectual property law, of which copyright is a part, is complex. Many writers who only very recently have come very late to the AI party and the issues involved, are writng under the delusion these copyright-based cases will correct this mess. As I said well over two years ago in one of my early background post, that issue is legally a dead horse, DOA, and the wrong approach. These interim decisons are beginning to back up that assesment. But the legal process and legislative capture are in their early stages and, thankfully, from my perspective, will proceed slowly as these things do. Once I finish this core suite, I will have time catch up to those events and address them, but by then in concert with other more pertinent issues, not yet in plain sight.

What I see everyday are articles and posts that continue to throw around the words ‘photography/photographic’ —and especially, ‘photo’ —with both ignorant and deliberate misapplication.

What “AI” and many of its most fervent users and abusers are doing is perpetrating fraud. Fraud is a word with legal defintions and consequences. Fraud is a word I have been using—very deliberately— in comments to posts I see that practice this deception. My intention is to ensure that photography becomes fully understood by the public so that they can recognize fraudulent imagery, but more importantly, fraudulent narratives, nomenclature, and semantic blurring when they see and read it. When photography finally has a standardized legal defintion, all fraudulent activities, linguistic associations, and catachrestic (please learn and use this word) use of terminolgy will have legal consequences.

When the next article in the series is finally posted, (more on that to follow) it will be accompanied by a suite of sideposts, one of which will be a deep-dive diatribe against the continuing assault on language and the implications of that on this project, and so many other aspects of civic living, commerce, law, and government. If you have been paying attention, you will have noticed many references I have made regarding issues of historical anachronism and how the problem is deeply rooted in language. The point will be made much more frequently in 2.4 (the reason why it was time to post the major side diversion on the topic). Given the nature of defintions, legal and common, this is parallel core subject of equal weight to all others.

So the question is, when will 2.4 post?

A brief personal history update: In one of the background posts I mentioned I had been trying to retire. I hoped that when I retired, I could dedicate uninterupted blocks of time to this project and move it along quickly. That process continued to run into snags, and roadblocks. After many attempts to make my exit, I finally set a date and stuck to it. That was April 1. I had been looking forward to that day for over two and half years of attempts to make it happen. Finally, I would have the time to do so many things, especially this project.

Here’s what has happened since: It took 5 months to get my Social Security retirement benefits straightened out after an agency snafu. When it came time to get enrolled in Medicare Part B as my retirement date approached, there were a series of rolling institutional snafus. I am being kind. The situation took nine weeks of constant attention to finally get 95% resolved. Only in the last week can I sense the drop in my blood pressure and release of the kind of tension that, no doubt, makes some people “go postal.” There still are issues of dealing with the private insurance companies, caused by the governmental agency issues, but now I am dealing with only occasional semi-idiocy in the NGO sector.

So, so far, retirement has not been what I hoped. I had big plans of things to accomplish while housebound during the winter, but alas, didn’t work out as planned. Spring has sprung and now I have to spend time outside dealing with things that have to be done. I should also add that since the inception of this project, and for the near future, I have not been out shooting. Not a frame. This must also change. Balance will be restored. My intentions will come to fruition as I try to ignore the ticking clock and feeling that calendar pages are changing increasingly quickly.

I did, however, start a new side business to hopefully develop a (mostly) passive income stream, but that is also taking up much more time than I anticipated. But this will level out in the near future.

Of course, it was disheartening to see the readership disappear as time without posting dragged on. But in the last two weeks or so, there has been a very refreshing uptick in numbers. These are not the result of anything posted here, since I haven’t done so in so long. No doubt, readers are coming here after reading comments I have posted elsewhere, and a couple of long-overdue posts on sister pub This Old Goat.

I hope this explains the endless delays. I hope to finally find much more time to work on this project in about two or three weeks, after the latest wrench thrown into my plans (unrelated to anything above) has run its course. I feel a sense of pressure to move this along quickly to get to events in the present.

2.4 and sideposts are coming. It will be an eye-opener, and I hope, make some lightbulbs come on over our collective heads as we examine things “everybody knows.”