Royal Photographic Society (RPS) closes forum discussion at the mention of racism and WW2...

As part of the discussion on an RPS thread on the issue surrounding Intellectual Property, I made the following response to address the comments, "We can't turn the tide", "The world has changed and we can do nothing about it" & "Images are readily available".


That kind of attitude would have lost us WWII, would never have addressed racism in this country through the 'Race Relations Ammendment Act' and would allow countless other forms of morally wrong actions to still be done without some recourse. It is also a very narrow view in that considering images only is ignoring the abuses that are foisted on other creative disciplines, such as musicians and writers. Campaigning for ethical, moral, and legal principles is always right, no matter how tough the task. Once you stop doing that the rule of law breaks down and dishonourable behaviour is given free scope. Associations representing creative people should be doing their utmost to protect their members 'Intellectual Property' rights.

The paragraph was demonstrating that sometimes we know that the battle for change is an uphill struggle ... but we have to get on with it and do what needs to be done to facilitate the change and restore a degree of morality to a practise that is damaging the world of the artist.

I was quite alarmed to read the following responses:

"Undoubtedly - but I would be very careful about comments like this - not everyone agrees that there are ethical / moral / legal issues at stake here, so either you are lumping those people with Nazis / racists etc. (which is very dodgy ground!) or you have to accept that not everyone has the same view and therefore you can not claim an absolute ethical / moral / legal position..."

and

Wolf there is no censorship involved here, the last thread you raised on this topic was closed by me as the argument had gone round in circles at least twice and no new information was forthcoming.


I will remind you however, that incorporating comments on World War II and racism is inappropriately emotive in this context, and any further use of similar language in a post will result in that post being pulled. You are obviously very passionate about this subject, but please keep your comments within bounds.

and last but not least:

It's good that you have taken the time to express yourself on the forum and your issues have indeed been noted and will be passed on to the council.



However, I don't think that  ******  has acted out of hand in his comments. He has replied to your comment from his own perspective as a photographer and has only switched to "Moderator Mode" when you started bringing WWII and racisim into the thread (Ed - which is chronologically incorrect when one examines the thread).  Which I have to agree is going too far on a photography forum.

I have to admit to feeling lost here as to how three seemingly reasonably educated people couldn't grasp the comments within the context they were written.

How is mentioning two examples of difficult struggles for changes that benefitted modern day society 'going too far'?  No one accused anyone of being a racist or fascist.  So why the spin? 

Wolf

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