Want to photograph the White Stag sign? City says pay up

Wow, proof that nobody actually read the article. Let me refer you to "anyone planning to use the sign for news stories, commercial filming or photography" - this means that Aunt Mable wont get thrown in the clink for shooting a shot of Uncle Wilbur during their trip down the coast. However, if Quentin Tarantino wants to make White Stag: The Movie and feature a gun battle in front of the sign for his next Hollywood production, he'll have to pony up some cash.

 

It's no different than going to - oh, say the Woodland Park rose gardens here in Seattle and shooting a commercial there. You'd have to pony up a bit of coin for that too.

If it's in public view, they can't charge squat, nor can they keep a photographer from taking a picture of it.

I rather fancy the idea of going down to P-town and snapping a shot of it with the hopes I get accosted and my gear confiscated!  Oh boy would I love that lawsuit's payout!

The city of sheeple ran by the city of dumbacrats are going to tax everything that can bring in a buck so they can continue to waste the money on pet projects that continue to disrupt traffic in this city. Bicyclist and light rail are pet projects that MOST people can't and won't use. Require bicyclist to register their bikes (and insure them) to pay for the roads that they've been given and quit subsidizing mass transit. If mass transit is so wonderful, why does it NOT support itself?

Next the city will be installing tolls on all the off ramps to the city to get more dollars. the city does need the extra money to pay all the police overtime from all these Occupy Portland Protests that has cost millions.

It's really nonsense to discourage advertising Portland in this way. However, I don't think, if left out of a shot,  the sign would be missed as much as the Space Needle or Golden Gate bridge. ;-)

I can not wait for the memes to show up... The city's GREEDY BA$TARD$ at work... Thank you Analyst Abby, you show us that our money is well spent on your and your colleges paychecks... Which City Commissioner does this fall under?  Fish, Saltzman....

I don't think that the Portland City Council realizes just how much exposure that they get from professional photographers that literally have thousands of people from around the world that follow their work. I have drawn many people into our area from as far away as France and Tasmania with my photographs of our area. I call this penny wise and dollar dumb. Typical short sightedness by elected officials that have no clue.

Really?!  o.O

The police will need to stage a White Stag sign photo turn-in.

I wonder how many rocks it would take to destroy the sign entirely?

You know what? That sign could use a bird. Someone should put a bird on it.

they're doing the same thing with the Willamette. Except you throw the cash directly into the river. Oh, and you have to jump in a circle 3 times and say hooga booga. 

The ever-increasing idiocy of Portland City government is the end product of the radical liberals and collectivists

that have hijacked this formerly wonderful town for the past 30+ years. The question is, when will the sane people

of Portland rebel politically and end this plague, and send these clowns and their "progressive" ideology packing?

I don't see a circle with an R in it on the sign indicating it's a registered trademark of the city of Portland.

 Thereby it would seem to me it's in the public domain.

 

How many businesses have the word Portland in their name? Is the city gonna start charging for that as well?

 

How about Northwest maybe that should be registered Also.

 

Next thing you know I think rightfully the city could claim the word IDIOT as a registered trademark which indicates Portland.

No surprise here.

If its stupid, then the city will at least try it if not make it official policy.

Hey, Gresham! Let's bill the Portland city government for all imagery of Mt. Hood they use, because photons detected by their cameras transited our airspace.  If you want to point your camera east and you work for Portland City Hall, you have to pay Gresham a tribute. Now quit eye-f*cking our mountain.

It's bad enough the gluttons at city hall make people pay to park on Sunday,

pretty soon it's gonna cost to walk on the sidewalks (if you can avoid the bums).

The city can kiss my dog's rosy pink puckered posterior.

(Is that too politically incorrect?)

 

Keep Portland weird? More like keep Portland dumb. I don't see Seattle doing this with the Space Needle or San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge.

"...capture the city's gritty charm..."?   Portland's "gritty charm".  You've got to be joking.  Looks like mostly grit and little charm if the city is going to charge a fee to take a picture of the sign.  What about the bridges?  Taking your camera to the zoo?  That will be $5 per photo taken.

If' it's a news story then it's obviously newsworthy and considered "fair use" under copyright law.

How much did the graphic for this story cost you?

Portland has been kept weird for so long it's become stupid !

So ridiculous...seriously.

The driving force behind any government entity is:

Bloat and self preservation. Honestly. Think it through.

As usual, a misleading headline. It's obvious there's no fee for photographing it, only using the image for specific purposes.  That said, what idiot came up with this idea? I hope that Multnomah County, who owns most of Portland's iconic Willamette River bridges, and the private owners of Portland's iconic buildings, will now charge the city of Portland to use those images in any form whatsoever in promoting Portland.

I assume they own the trademark right to it...or else they are going to have a tough time collecting.

 

And are they really going to file a $10,000 lawsuit to collect $100?  Nevermind, they probably will.

Perhaps we should start a "Post pictures of the Portland Oregon sign and share them" campaign on Facebook?  That should keep city administrators busy, or call their absurd bluff.

I can see it now, anyone with a camera pointed at the sign will be asked to pay up before taking a picture....good way to push off tourists

Lol what a joke. Why would you try and charge for free advertising?

The sign is public domain. I don't think they can charge to photograph it.

I swear, the governance of this city is completely brain dead.  Why on earth are they trying to discourage pictures that promote tourism?

How much FREE advertising is the city giving up for trying to enforce a photo fee for sign that is in pubic view?

 

Penny wise and pound foolish!

Let us give city hall some exposure. CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera Look at what Portland is trying to do....Lose more in public relations than any kind of income from selling peeks of the People's sign. Nice.

This will make someone's lawyer a good payday when they actually try to enforce this with the wrong person. Just as the cops can't compel you to stop photographing them on the street, the city cannot make you pay for taking a photograph of something that is in plain public sight. Fire the idiot who thought of this, and make the rest of her department go out and patch potholes instead of sitting around thinking of stuff like this. I'd guess it's a Portlandia skit, but it's probably too ridiculous for that.

American citizens OWN NOTHING; the US Governments can TAKE EVERYTHING, including YOUR LIFE!

Correct me if I am wrong but didn't the taxpayers fund the purchase?  I guess it is no different than the city charging us to park on the streets we paid for, or taxing us through utilities for the use of the streets we paid for, etc., etc.  At some point the taxpayers should say enough and demand a different approach.  In the meantime, if I take a picture of the sign (which really is public domain) I will force them to come after me. 

How much business does this stupid sign *actually* attract? How do you track the profits and come up with a fair charge? Any professional photographer who takes a panorama of the city has to pay because this thing is "incidentally" in the background? Maybe they should just Photoshop it out. That would work.

I really think the City of Portland should look into changing it's name. Somehow there have got to be business entities that have lots of free money lying around, unable to invest it in something meaningful.  I can see it now, no longer Portland, but "Starbucks, Oregon", or perhaps "Niketown, Oregon". Why keep Portland when there is all that naming money out there. Might as well get some money to help pay for dead-beat upkeep, bike lanes, composting, etc. Perhaps they could also sell the name of the Willamette River?

Portland is weird.

The Disneyland experience without all that fun...

So the only people who will end up making money off of this is the City employee(s) who enforces it and lawyers, right?  What about artists who paint or draw it and represent its likeness but aren't using the actual image (or, maybe they are sitting on the sidewalk sketching freehand)?

 

Seriously?  This is the ONLY way they can think of generating revenue?  They'd be lucky to get $500 a year (before paying out for it).

 

Maybe a model needs to be reproduced to be juxtaposed over the "real" sign so that it won't be offending anyone.

 

I say -- naked bike ride to protest sign abuse!  We'll send some people up to the top (nekkid, of course) to chain themselves up in protest!

Hmmmm, who else can we screw out of their money today?

We could use the sign as a blunt instrument and smack the dipshirt who came up with the idea. Absolutely disgusting.

Coming soon a price list for other great Portland Icons claimed by the city: Skidmore fountain, Pioneer Courthouse/Courthouse Square, Saturday Market, VooDoo Doughnuts, Steel and Hawthorne Bridges, Willamette River, Big Pink, the Portland Skyline from Rose Garden/Council Crest, a Rose, homeless guys pushing carts, cops on horses, Benson Bubblers, MAX/Sreet Cars, dudes on fixies, People drinking coffee, people drinking beer, food carts, people eating food near food carts, rain, mud puddles, and pot holes...or any of the other thousands of cliche photos that make Portland just like every other city but somehow abstractly identifiable as Portland. 

 

BTW --- Did you know that Portland must request permission to use images of the statue "Portlandia" because the rights to any image/reproduction is retained by the artist.

That's the most ridiculous idea I've heard since mandated composting and every-other-week cash pick-up.