I’ve been selling creative work for 40 years, and photography is just a small part of it. Creatives who fail to pay an attorney when contract language is not clear, risk everything they have.

My daughter handles copyright and trademark cases at her firm, and I cannot believe how many giant corporations like WalMart and Target and big name politicians knowingly infringe on copyrights and count on slow courts to make it so hard and expensive to fight them, creatives settle for pennies.

Creative work is a cut throat business and getting harder every year. Since our lawmakers are responsible for laws that benefit the rich and powerful, filing a lot of lawsuits is aimed at stopping the theft of creative work, by jamming up the courts with so many cases, the backlog falls on the backs of politicians. In this trickle down game, small people, like Medium writers, are the most vulnerable.