The delicate balancing act between showcasing the horrors of Rhino poaching and the need to ‘shock’ people into sitting up and take notice of the plight of Rhino’s in South Africa often leads people to trample over the rights of others in a misguided attempt to profit off of the situation. Often legitimate owners of copyrighted material are ‘coerced’ into ‘donating’ video and images that they do not want to make public owing to the shocking horror of said images or video.
Trampling on the rights of legal copyright holders and hitching one’s respected brand to such an action is NOT what one would expect of retailers such as Woolworths or extreme adventurer, conservationist, Woolworths MyPlanet Ambassador and 50/50 presenter, Braam Malherbe. Both of which can boast of long experience with creative people and their rights over copyrighted content.
On 11 February 2011 local videographer Rainer Schimpf accompanied by local photographer Mike Holmes raced to the Kariega Game Reserve to document the aftermath of a horrific attack and de-horning of a White Rhino. (See: Can You Even Begin to Imagine This Rhino’s Pain?)
Much debate ensued about the future use of this horrific footage and eventually it was released for extremely limited use by Carte Blanche and a portion of the footage was donated to the Wilderness Foundation. Rainer explains; “It was my free decision to do so based on the fact that those two 2 institutions give wide support to Rhino conservation. Due to the delicate nature of the footage I decided that it must not be used recklessly by any other institution nor NGO since abuse of the message and misrepresentation was likely.”
An edited and low resolution version of the HD video was published on YouTube by Schimpf.
During March 2011 an approach by Woolworths MyPlanet Ambassador Malherbe to use the HD footage was refused.
The Wilderness Foundation used the low resolution footage to publicise their petition against Rhino poaching. See: Forever Wild – Save the Rhino and, as an ethical organisation with deep Port Elizabeth roots, agreed to refer any queries about use of the footage to Schimpf.
So, we now have one Port Elizabeth organisation and one PE individual fighting to protect the Rhino when along comes Woolworths and Braam Malherbe who set up a Facebook site to promote the Woolworths ‘Save the Rhino’s with MyPlanet’ initiative. Basically this initiative hinges on shoppers applying for a card and choosing the EWT MyPlanet Rhino Fund as their charity of choice. Every swipe of the card in a Woolies store and other nationwide partners, results in an “up to 1%” donation of the value of the purchases towards rhino conservation!
We will reserve any discussion on the vague “up to 1%” donation computation.
Crucial to this Facebook campaign was the display of an edited and unauthorised display of Rainer Schimpf’s video of the Kariega Rhino taken on 11 February 2011. Links to this video were readily shared by the creators of and visitors to this page.
Long story short:
- Neither Braam nor Woolworths asked permission of Schimpf to use the footage.
- They effectively ‘poached’ the footage and used it to make money for a ‘charity’ that will not directly benefit the Kariega Game Reserve, the Wilderness Foundation or Rainer for his copyrighted material.
- Donations to MyPlanet are only effective when goods are purchased at Woolworths or partners.
After the first lawyers letter to Woolworths they removed the footage from their Facebook page.
Further litigation to enforce his rights will cost Schimpf an arm and a leg leading him to say; “Once again we have a ‘David against Goliath’ situation despite the evidence that Woolworths is clearly at fault. It is so sad that these ‘Poachers’ have misguided their customers with the impression that they are doing something good.”
Schimpf’s attorney, Salomé le Roux says; “[the video] definitely appears to be an unauthorized reproduction/copying and adaptation of your original footage as it is not the same video as the authorized one on youtube.com or even a link to that video. Copyright in a cinematographic film is infringed whenever the film is reproduced, published or adapted without the permission of the copyright owner.”
One has to question whether the ongoing Rhino slaughter has now become yet another way for big business to turn a buck.
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