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Arch Enemy - Photographer Banned From All Future Performances Over Copyright Dispute


Edit: Arch Enemy's singer and Thunderball Clothing's Marta Gabriel have issues statements regarding this dispute.

Arch Enemy's current front-woman Alissa White-Gluz and former front-woman/current manager Angela Gossow are under fire from Metal Blast after they've chosen to ban Metal Blast's own J Salmeron from photographing all future performances of the band. The ban stems from a dispute with both White-Gluz and Gossow and the photographer who published a photograph of White-Gluz at Fortarock festival. Salmeron noticed that his photograph of White-Gluz was appropriated by the merchandise company Thunderball Clothing and used for marketing their products without his approval.



J Salmeron is a lawyer as well as a photographer and is no stranger to seeing photographer's works stolen by others on Instagram, and imposes a harsh fee of ?500 to companies who post his photographs without his authorization. He even contacted White-Gluz directly via Instagram regarding her re-posting of his photograph to ensure bootleggers aren't appropriating the photo to profit behind Arch Enemy's back:



Regardless, Salmeron was willing to forgo the steep penalty by allowing Thunderball Clothing to donate ?100 directly to the Dutch Cancer Foundation as recompense for stealing his photograph, even allowing them to continue to use the photo. Unbeknownst to Salmeron, Gossow responded directly to his request for a donation (and not Thunderball Clothing as initially interpreted by Salmeron) reminding him that photographers are often excited to be compensated through exposure: "[...] Arch Enemy loves to have a nice cooperation between photographers, fans and festivals, and sharing moments from the concert is a way to stay connected. Generally speaking, photographers appreciate having their work shown as much as possible and we are thankful for the great photos concert photographers provide. [...]"

Despite Salmeron's attempts at clarifying that in this case he was willing to forgo the high fee he normally charges in lieu of ?100 in donations to the Dutch Cancer Foundation, Gossow replied: "[...] We have immediately removed the picture you took at FortaRock. By the way, we are sure you don't mind that you are not welcome anymore to take pictures of Arch Enemy performances in the future, at festivals or solo performances. I have copied in the label reps and booking agent who will inform promoters - no band wants to have photographers on site who later send such threatening correspondence to monetise on their images. [...]"
After being threatened by Gossow, Salmeron attempted to reach out to White-Gluz directly to rectify any misunderstandings, and received a chilling response from White-Gluz:



Arch Enemy has yet to respond publicly to the accusations set forth by J Salmeron. This sets a scary precedent for photographers wishing to participate in festivals and performances by bands. What are your thoughts regarding Arch Enemy's reaction to Salermon's request to be compensated for his photography? You can see J Salmeron's abridged summary of the debacle below:



Source: metalblast.net
Band profile: Arch Enemy
Posted: 27.12.2018 by ScottyM


Comments page 2 / 2

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Comments: 38   Visited by: 319 users
29.12.2018 - 12:10
tominator
At best deranged
Written by ScottyM on 29.12.2018 at 10:11


GREAT NEWS!!!

http://metaladdicts.com/site/arch-enemys-alissa-white-gluz-respond-to-banned-photographer


Wow that whole response is just sad. A company using a picture to show off one of its creations = commercial use. Even if the clothes are not available too buy, it still promoting the kind of clothes you offer.

Also seems like Thunderball has already sent out an apology. So that makes AE look even more like a bunch of idiots...
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01.01.2019 - 23:40
rocksoccer

I am not surprised by the news, but I am really surprised by people's reaction in the comments.
I think I agree that all people's comments are correct that photographer's right should be respected and protected, but we should not forget another thing, maybe the most important thing, metal is about fun. Sometimes a little brainless from metalheads is actually the lovely aspects of us, the metalheads. When we show our middle fingers in a gig, it does not necessarily mean we hate that much, it is just fun.

There are already so many serious things in the world, can we not preserve some naiveness in metal?
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02.01.2019 - 00:20
nikarg

Written by rocksoccer on 01.01.2019 at 23:40

There are already so many serious things in the world, can we not preserve some naiveness in metal?

Yeah, because someone stealing your work to promote their own is metal as fuck.
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08.01.2019 - 16:06
SoUnDs LiKe PoP

Written by ScottyM on 29.12.2018 at 10:11

Written by Irritable Ted on 28.12.2018 at 00:30

Can't see how the band can come out of this except giving an apology. I hope it is a misunderstanding otherwise they come out looking like complete asshats.


GREAT NEWS!!!

Alissa responded exactly as long-time followers of her expected she would, by dramatically, and depressingly ignoring the 100 Euro compromise that was offered to keep using J Salmeron's photo. I won't quote the long-winded response here, but she continues with the narrative that Salmeron tried to extort 500 Euros from them. I usually prefer to dislike bands because I just don't click with the music they produce anymore, but even if Arch Enemy were to put out what I thought of as a good album, I'd still have this lingering reminder of how immature, unprofessional, and ignorant Alissa is. The band would have to blow my mind musically to make me overlook that extremely unattractive habit she's clung to for far too long.


You've been a pretty good voice of reason throughout this thread, enjoyed reading your responses.
PS - I think I attended the same Nightwish concert in '16 that you did, was a good one. I hate that area of NJ, though.
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I lift weights and listen to metal
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09.01.2019 - 04:16
Quatropus

" Gossow responded directly to his request for a donation (and not Thunderball Clothing as initially interpreted by Salmeron) reminding him that photographers are often excited to be compensated through exposure"

This line I have such a huge problem with as someone who was going to school for Photography. It's weird that those in the music industry would hate that you downloaded their work for free and all you did was give them exposure by playing it, so why would they be hypocrites and steal work down by others for exposure? She says exposure, but no where in that instagram post did it actually link his profile or work? That's not exposure, that's you taking the work someone did and promoting it for your own advertising without giving the person credit.
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11.08.2023 - 10:52
Dinruth

Written by Quatropus on 09.01.2019 at 04:16

" Gossow responded directly to his request for a donation (and not Thunderball Clothing as initially interpreted by Salmeron) reminding him that photographers are often excited to be compensated through exposure"

This line I have such a huge problem with as someone who was going to school for Photography. It's weird that those in the music industry would hate that you downloaded their work for free and all you did was give them exposure by playing it, so why would they be hypocrites and steal work down by others for exposure? She says exposure, but no where in that instagram post did it actually link his profile or work? That's not exposure, that's you taking the work someone did and promoting it for your own advertising without giving the person credit.


Even more so .. I get the feeling that a lot of people expect from artists that they work for exposure when they aren't super famous .. but would you ask a plumber to work for exposure??
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11.08.2023 - 18:10
Guib
Thrash Talker
Not surprising one bit but yeah its bad. Crazy that they don't realize how wrong this is lol maybe they do but just don't care and play the victim card. I feel its especially troubling coming from an artist to another artist. They should get it? No?

I mean lets just use Arch Enemy's music freely to advertise or promote products, or create content then when they get mad that we aren't paying royalties, stealing their music and using their image to promote products they might not like, we'll just tell them they should be glad we're giving them "exposure". Wtf.

How disconnected do you have to be.
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- Headbanging with mostly clogged arteries to that stuff -
Guib's List Of Essential Albums
- Also Thrash Paradise
Thrash Here
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11.08.2023 - 21:15
Cynic Metalhead
Paisa Vich Nasha
AE played a curve ball on this stooge to pull massive attention by accusing and degrading a lovely industry of photography. It's been over 5 years now and AE is still fucking irrelevant.
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