So say you work at a photolab and you’ve been warned that printing a professional photographer’s image without their permission could be a violation of copyright law. If someone dropped off this photo…

would you print it? Tune in to Marketplace tomorrow Friday, July 29th to hear a story I reported about the collision between digital photography and copyright law. Click here to find out when and where to tune in in your town.

Doing this story made me desperately want a digital camera. I’ve got a beautiful manual camera lying around the apartment, but I never use it. Because, well…because I suck at photography and I don’t want to waste money developing my mistakes. But the idea of being able to shoot and shoot on the cheap until I got it right seems perfect for me. Rich Cahan, who I interviewed for the story, spoke beautifully (in tape I had to leave out) about how the digital camera allows ordinary citizens to document their lives in ways they’ve never been able to before. To take pictures of the things that capture our attention momentarily, the mundane moments we all spend waiting and bored. Hell, I’ve seen people online photograph their dinners and make it look interesting.

Above photo courtesy Mr. King.