The magistrate, holder of the Commercial court number 7 of Madrid will evaluate if we Can stole audiovisual material of the photographer, and audiovisual producer Pedro Armestre for a video of 2015 in denouncing the working conditions of the fire services of Castilla y León.
According to the lawsuit whose content is judged today, to which he has had access to this journal, this political formation took without permission from the author nearly two minutes of the documentalFuego for the spot titled 850 euros, a video denunciation of the low salary they were paid, at that time, the members of the brigades firefighting castellanoleonesas, and which amounted to the same amount, 850 euros.
Despite the requirements of the author, which was included in the documentary Fire images obtained in fires between the years 2009 and 2012, We only agreed to remove the spot of the social networks when the lawyer Armestre sent a registered fax requesting the measure to the mep Ana Marcello Saints, without which the training agreement to compensate the photographer for the appropriation during a year of his work.
we Can, for its part, has denied in the procedure having to do with the authorship of the video 850 euros, and has also refused to have disseminated on their websites and official channels. Has denied that it had carried out the promotional campaign in favour of the brigades fire of Castilla y León, and has put in doubt even the YouTube channel in the broadcast Fire belongs to the photographer that has sued. The party, in short, has admitted having received a compensation claim standing at 300,000 euros by Armestre, but has rejected as “fraudulent”.
we Can, however, not been able to explain why after this request, the video was off the hook several linked pages, according to the complaint, to the party.
The textuality of the demand it puts on value to both the author and the work. Armestre, also a photojournalist, and has developed his career among other media in THE WORLD, has won among other awards the King of Spain Journalism, Humanity Photo Awards of Unesco and Ortega y Gasset. The photographer has since more than a decade ago with special permission of the authorities (Military Emergency Unit, among other agencies) and with specialized training to enter the fire, along with the brigades of extinction.
The work with which are formed the material is then pirated, therefore, was not only unique, but of high documentary value. In addition, the written companion to the video, that Armestre distributed on its YouTube channel, pondered the existence of copyright in the images, subsequently not respected in the campaign we Can, which is precisely oriented to protect the rights of workers, in this case members of the brigades firefighting.
The lawsuit also argues that We not only took without permission the video and refused to compensate the photographer when he took note of the appropriation, but what troceó to suit your promotional purposes, “maltratándolo and degradándolo”.
Armestre has explained to this newspaper: “I’ve always been, in my whole career, independent. If I had been consulted I would have rated the possibility of transferring images, but they didn’t want to do it and then on top refused to admit that they had appropriate images. They allege that the campaign was made for the common good, but to do so before they have to be counted with the author of the images. Go saving the world on behalf of others. I have put in your bag without asking for permission.”