A little while back, Amazon decided to patent the process of shooting video and photos on a seamless background. Amazingly, the world had been doing this for years. We all thought it to be ridiculous, as did Colbert. But Kirk Tuck has thought it to be even more ridiculous and writes what is some awesome satire after working on a set doing nearly the same thing that Amazon has patented.
Kirk has surely let us all know how crazy the idea of the patent is, but he also goes on to find things that weren’t patented. For example, he states that after talking with his IP attorney:
“We were in a bit of disbelief when we discovered that no one, not even David Hobby, had patented the technique of using a battery powered flash off the camera. I found this amazing and my attorney thought it was a delicious place to start. We applied for two patents: One for using the flash off camera with a cable and the other for using a flash off camera with a radio trigger. Now, please understand, we aren’t patenting the technology for getting the flash off camera, just the action of using the flash off the camera. You are now forewarned so put the damn flash back on your hotshoe and suck it up!”
And he continues to state that they went after other patents. Even more crazy is when he states the desire to patent the reading of a tweet.
Kirk’s blog post brings up a bigger point though: corporations have always gone after some crazy things. With Amazon going after shooting on seamless, also consider that the Time Warner company owns the rights to the Happy Birthday song. This is the reason why when you go into an Applebees (in the US) that the servers come up with some sort of silly song for you.
But more so, we believe that it will change photography even more where folks will try to shoot with a more lifestyle approach.
