Walmart & Feds in Cahoots to Tick Me Off

Well, here I am at a local Wal-Mart.

I've just driven over 400 miles to celebrate my mother's 81st birthday. She had just opened a box of old, I mean really old photographs of my grandparents, my great grandparents and my great great grandparents.

These of course date back to the mid 1800's. Some were taken in other countries like Ireland, England and Italy.

So my mom is writing down the names of all these ancestors which I find fascinating. We figured we'd just bop down to the local Wal-Mart and scan them to a disk so I can take them home, maybe hang a few on the wall.

Lo and behold, Ken the Wal-Mart guy in his bright blue vest and nametag educates us on the fact that due to Federal copyright laws, Wal-Mart will not allow me to scan my own photos of my own family if they in any way resemble a professional photographer’s work.

For me to be allowed by Wal-Mart to copy these old pictures, I am told I have to get the original photographer to sign an official government document waiver giving me permission to have Wal-Mart put these pictures on a disk or print them.

Now, think about this for a minute. Ken the blue vest guy tells me that this incredibly ingenious Federal law applies for the last 100 years! How in the world am I to get a photographer who's been DEAD for over 80 years to sign off on Wal-Mart 's Federally approved release form?

Not only that, everybody in the pictures are dead too. Of all the cemeteries I've visited, I've yet to see a clipboard with photo waiver forms attached to a tombstone.

To be fair, I requested a copy of the official Wal-Mart Copyright Policy brochure. I'm going to give my attorneys a jingle and have them review it. Because it seems totally crazy!

It's kind of like the stories you hear of all the insane laws that are still on the books from the 19th century. Like tying your horse to a fire hydrant and spitting on the sidewalk.

Maybe this paragraph will through light on Walmart's bizarre policy.

Now Ken, informed me that the little old lady behind the photo counter, also with a blue vest-thing, was a "highly trained expert" who could tell whether a photo was professionally done or not...even though their brochure stated that the professional photo would be identified by being "signed, stamped or otherwise identified by any photographer or studio."

I envisioned a special National Wal-Mart Little Old Lady Training Center For the Advancement of Copyright Identification where these local retiree’s were sent off to for a week of intense training on old pictures."

"In addition, we will not copy a photograph that appears to have been taken by a professional photographer or studio, even if it is not marked with any sort of copyright, unless we are presented with a signed Copyright Release from the photographer or studio."

Not only that. Wal-Mart must retain the release form on file at their store for five (5) years! Talk about lawyers making life complicated."...if a Customer makes an unauthorized reprint of a copyrighted photo at Wal-Mart, both the Customer and the photo lab making the picture could be liable for copyright infringement!"

(Exclamation point is their's)

Ah... Now things are coming into focus. (No pun intended)

Their absurd policy is not to protect me or you, the naive customer. It's to cover their assets!

With all the legal attacks on Wal-Mart, their not taking any chances of another lawsuit filed by a dead photographer. Makes perfect sense to me. Not.

So just a word of warning. Get a scanner and do it yourself.

PS. Come spring I’ll still probably buy my fertilizer there in the lawn and garden department. Unless I have to sign a release promising to not spread their manure without the express written permission of the cow!