I got an email today from Medium about a DMCA takedown notice with Mr. Raymond Kass claiming co-ownership along with Mr. Samuel Krisch of an image that I and Mr. Krisch created for Mr. Kass and his Mountain Lake Workshop.

The image being the title image “Three Graces” that was used in promotion of the exhibition. An image that I assembled/composed from a pool of images from a collaborative photoshoot and turned out, were specifically Mr. Krisch’s own initial shots.

It’s a difficult situation I’m in. I haven’t the clout, or the financial resources to do much about it all, and being “the little man” here, I’m easily dismissed and considered of little significance; yet, here I am, disputing a copyright claim regarding an image that wouldn’t exist as it does without the specific compositional arrangement and modifications I applied to it.

A little background on the matter can be found in my previous post here: “Jaded Cage and the Final Brush: How Ray Kass Signed His Name On My Work”

The email from Medium had “yourfriends” and some numbers prior to the @ sign and is as follows:

“Hi there,

We have received a takedown notice (attached) for the photo contained in the post:https://medium.com/@RyanBroughman/jaded-cage-and-the-final-brush-cc7beb510d51

Before we start the takedown process, would you be willing to remove the photo from the article?

Thanks,
Nick
User Happiness

Attachment(s)
Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 2.18.09 PM.png”

I’ve uploaded the attachment of Raymond Kass’s email to Medium to IMGUR.

My reply to Medium was as follows:

Mr. Fisher,

Thanks for the notice and I rather enjoy the “your friends” part of the email as it is psychologically brilliant and much preferred to the usual addresses these sort of things entail.

The image in question is one that I had a hand in creating, as did Samuel Krisch, and Raymond Kass. As a co-creator, co-author, collaborator or whatever you’d like to call it, I can do with the image as I please. If you refer to Raymond Kass and/or Samuel Krisch’s artistic body of work you’ll find no resemblance to the images of this workshop, if you refer to a broad selection of my own digital images you’ll find that they resemble the work that this workshop produced; that is, quite simply, because I was the main driving force behind the actual look of the images.

Their claim as to its[sic] ownership is a half truth, or more accurately, a truth of thirds since it seems Mr. Krisch and Mr. Kass have teamed up in the matter. I created the final composition of the image Raymond Kass is laying claim to.

This image has a rather specific significance to the situation, which, if you’ve had the time to read the text the image is associated with on my post, you’ll begin to understand. As such it was the ideal image to accompany the article I wrote.

It’s also rather easy to understand that this is a simple hot air intimidation tactic by a rather keen miser who is probably still shocked that I had the audacity to stand up for myself.

Mr. Kass has mentioned that he has referred the matter to his legal counsel and as such I hope that the matter finds itself in court; though, I doubt Mr. Kass or Mr. Krisch will pursue the matter to that extent as it would unveil their entire scheme. As I said before, this is an intimidation tactic.

I’m not completely aware of Medium’s policy in such situations. But it would seem unfair if the image were taken down simply at an unconfirmed claim; the initial posting of the image was an effort of my own to make claim to the image. There has yet to be a court proceeding or court order concerning the image and until a ruling is made and an order issued regarding the takedown of the image, I implore Medium to take no side on the matter and let Mr. Kass’s legal counsel make the next steps.

Should my address and phone number be needed by any attorney they are as follows:

Ryan Broughman
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Richmond, VA 23230

XXX XXX XXXX

Most Sincerely,

Ryan Broughman

I fired that email off rather quickly, and made the classic blunder of “it’s” versus “its.” I also forgot to actually answer the question of “ would you be willing to remove the photo from the article…” Well, no. Absolutely not. I did the clicking, dragging, and what not required to make the image look the way it looks. Mr. Krisch came over and got excited about it, thought I did a good job, and ultimately the image was exhibited alongside other images I was told “good job” on yet, I was never allowed to sign. The image stays if I can make it stay.

I’ll continue to post to this Medium account if the situation develops further and provided Medium doesn’t go the route of suspension or otherwise give me unnecessary trouble.

UPDATE: I was given a ten day countdown by Medium to change the picture. After some consultation and a little bit of thought, I’ve changed the picture to one that is revealing of Kass and his persistence (Links I posted via Facebook to the article were reported by Kass as infringement and removed with no question by Facebook). I’ve exhausted my interest in this at the moment but, may revisit it later.

I’ve wasted enough time as a result of Ray Kass and don’t wish to continue draining my state-of-mind.

Here is the image hosted elsewhere.

As of the 25th of June there has been more than 700 views between this and my initial post with 243 “reads” for DMCA Takedown Notice and 128 for Jaded Cage and the Final Brush.

Screen shot of stats page.

Those are rather satisfying and surprising numbers.

-Ryan Broughman

“Dear Ryan,

I am saddened by your angry, inaccurate, defamatory, and mean-spirited post on Facebook and Medium.com, and have requested that it be taken down (Sam has done the same.)

For the record, the digital prints are initialed and titled on the left-side by the workshop artistic director, Sam Krisch, and on the right-hand side by me (above an embossed authorizing seal), the founder and director of the Mountain Lake Workshop.

Also, I contacted Capital One and asked them to forward me the actual wall labels and texts (in which you appear to have received fair and ample credit) — they are attached below for your review:

The wall text fairly acknowledges your contribution and the label for specific “Three Graces” digital image was credited on the wall as:

Sam Krisch & the Mountain Lake Workshop

Imagery by Sam Krisch

Composition by Ryan Broughman

Three Graces, 2013

Digital print on paper

I hope that you are well and continue to send you best wishes in all.

Ray

copies:

“Three Graces” Workshop participants

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ray Kass <raykass@vt.edu>

Date: June 17, 2014 12:48:17 PM EDT

To: copyright@medium.com

Cc: Sam Krisch <samkrisch@gmail.com>

Bcc: Sam Krisch <samwrites@me.com>, 555masterson@gmail.com, lance lemon <lancemlemon@gmail.com>, Ray Kass <raykass@vt.edu>

Subject: DMCA outline notification of Ryan Broughman’s copyright infridgement

June 17, 2014

Designated Copyright Agent

A Medium Corporation

760 Market Street, Suite 900

San Francisco, CA 94102

Dear Medium.com,

I am requesting that Medium.com take down my copyrighted image that is in direct violation of DMCA’s policy. I did not give permission for this image to be published and it is an infringement of my copyright and that of Samuel Krisch.

The Image in question is one to which Samuel Krisch (Artistic Director of the “Three Graces” workshop) and myself (Founder and Director of The Mountain Lake Workshop) own exclusive copyright . Ryan Broughman used this image (reproduced below) as his top-cover photo for his Blog written on Medium.com. (URL posted below)

https://medium.com/@RyanBroughman/jaded-cage-and-the-final-brush-cc7beb510d51

The art piece in question is one of five composite-layered images made from many digital photos contributed by community volunteers, of which, Ryan Broughman was one. Sam Krisch was artistic director for this workshop; it is entitled, “Digital Public Day-Three Graces”. I gave an introduction to the group of volunteer community participants and described the general event-activity, an ongoing workshop activity based in similar previous Mountain Lake Workshop photography projects. In my introduction, all volunteers understood that they would have no intellectual property rights to the resulting collages, which would be held by myself and the Mountain Lake Workshop, and the artistic director, Samuel Kirsch, in whose studio the final prints were produced under his guidance and supervision.

Ryan Broughman inexplicably left the project before it was complete; It was a great learning experience for Ryan Broughman, but, although he contributed to the workshop, he has no individual or exclusive artistic authorship in any of the works produced in this workshop. He is not entitled to copyright for this image (the image in question is entirely comprised of images taken by Sam Krisch and was composed under his supervision) and he did not request permission to use this image. Samuel Krisch and I must insist that Medium.com take the post down.

All the information in this notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, I am authorized as the copyright holder.

Thank you for your consideration.

Raymond R. Kass, Founder and Director, the Mountain Lake Workshop

http://www.mountainlakeworkshop.com/

(Attached below is the notification sent to Facebook requesting notifying them of copyright infringement)

School of Visual Art, CAUS, VA Tech

201 Draper Rd.

Blacksburg, VA

24060

raykass@vt.edu

(540) 231 — 5547 (SOVA Office)

Hello Veronica,

On June 6th,2014 I was in contact with you via email about a post on Ryan Broughman’s Facebook wall that is a blatant copyright infringement of the digital image that Samuel Krisch (Director of Digital “Three Graces Workshop) and I (operating as Founder and Director of the Mountain Lake Workshop) own. I submitted all required prerequisites to you in the last email and he has once again, as of June 9th, re-posted the specific image attached bellow. This image WAS made in a collaborative- community-based workshop entitled, “Three Graces” in which, all participants agreed on video, in the introduction to the specific workshop-event, that no workshop participant would have ANY intellectual rights to ANY of the resultant composite digital artworks. Sam Krisch (copied above) and myself as Director control the copyright to this specific image.

Ryan Broughman volunteered his services both in the workshop-event, and in the post-production refining of composition of the five image. These specific images comprised the montages represented in the exhibition of this phase of the workshop, that resulted in the final pieces.

He dropped out of the workshop before any of the images were completed and Sam Krisch was responsible for the refinement of the final image,and the specific image that has been posted in violation of our copyrights (on Facebook a d Medium). This image has since appeared in an exhibition that premiered early 2014 at which Mr. Broughman was appropriately credited in the wall text for the show and to this specific image and for his role in helping to design aspects of the image.

He has been a valued member of numerous workshops in the past; The Mountain Lake workshop community does not understand his delusional attempts to claim sole ownership of said finalized image. We appreciate his work and his creative insight, which was a positive aspect to the community of volunteers, but this does not by any means give him ownership or artistic authorthiship of this specific artwork.

Ryan Broughman’s defamatory statements are inaccurate, and his claims to aristic copyright ownership are baseless. Mr. Broughman did not

create the layered-format that resulted in this specific image.

(this style of photographic-layered format has been actively part of the Mountain Lake Workshop repertoire since 1993.)

http://www.mountainlakeworkshop.com/

Raymond R. Kass

June 16, 2014

Hi Sam and Ryan,

Photomontage — in which workshops participants contribute photo imagery that is then layered in geometric patterns — has long been an activity of the Mountain Lake Workshops.

Below is one of the earliest examples that was arduously created in a dark room — lots of cut orange gels, chemicals, and long hours. Photoshop and digital technology spared us that — thank God !

“John’s Place At Ripplemead”, 1993, was made for a commemorative edition of the German magazine, MusicTexte, that was dedicated to Cage after his death in 1992. I developed the images with Stephan Gibson, and they are based on the layered polyptych (many-paneled) format that I developed in my own painting for Cage, although he did not live to use it. An example of this work is Broad Channel, 1991, in the Nevada Museum of Art, in which more than 24 participants contributed elements to the watercolor underpainting. Joe Kelley’s “Appalachian Trail Frieze” (1994) and Carlton Abbott’s “Virginia Pathways” engaged participants in the same photomontage process as we experience in “John’s P{lace at Ripplemead”. The “Appalachian Trail Frieze” was on view for six months in 2012 in the Contemporary Gallery at the Taubman.

Michele at Capital One is sending me all of the wall texts and labeling later this afternoon — so I will be able to see what they finally put up as texts. It was a big show and the titles and texts were a long process — as you can imagine.

Ryan, Sam and I discussed inviting you to initial some or all the framed prints — but you had left town by that time — vanished really — and were completely out of touch with us. It was good to see you in Richmond.

I hope this helps.

Best to all,

Ray