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Lexar Media Offers $100 For Unwanted Microdrives Would a Proposed Child Pornography Bill Make Legitimate Images of Children Illegal? Epson introduces 24-, 44 Inch Printers with New 7 Color UltraChrome Ink System Ritz Interactive Acquires CameraWorld.com Website Filmguard Announces New Pro-Line Generix Imaging Products Applied Science Fiction Releases Digital ROC & Digital SHO Plug-ins for Mac Black River Publishing's 14th Annual Calendar Contest Lexar Media Offers $100 For Unwanted Microdrives Lexar Media announced a new program that allows customers to trade-in unwanted Microdrives for cash credit towards the purchase of new CompactFlash cards. Lexar will give you $100 toward the purchase of a 16X speed 1 Gigabyte CompactFlash card or $50 toward the purchase of a 16X speed 640 Megabyte CompactFlash card. The trade-up program runs through May 31, 2002 and is available at participating Lexar dealers in the United States. Advantages of the CompactFlash cards over Microdrives include improved reliability in humid or freezing conditions and improved battery life. Best of all the Microdrive you're trading in doesn't even have to be in working condition! Would a Proposed Child Pornography Bill Make Legitimate Images of Children Illegal?
CMEPA states that "Whoever displays, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, the image of a child who has not attained the age of 17 years, with the intent to make a financial gain thereby, or offers, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to provide an image of such a child with the intent to make a financial gain thereby, without a purpose of marketing a product or service other than an image of a child model, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both." Translation: were Bill Hartley (one of our editors) to sell this image of his daughter for use on a calendar he would be guilty of "Child Exploitation" under CMEPA. A photographer taking class pictures of your child could be similarly guilty as the image is the product (provided he didn't live in the same state as the child). It is critically important that we protect our children. But to do so we need well crafted laws that draw a clear and distinct line between legitimate, acceptable, commercial use and pornography. The full text of the bill is available online at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.4667: Epson introduces 24-, 44 Inch Printers with New 7 Color UltraChrome Ink System Epson has introduced the Stylus Pro 7600 and Stylus Pro 9600 inkjet
printers, with UltraChrome ink. The ink archival system uses seven
individual colors to create exhibit-quality output on a wide selection of
media in both color and black and white formats. The Stylus Pro 7600
replaces the Stylus Pro 7000 and 7500 for printing images as wide as 24
inches, while the Stylus Pro 9600 replaces the Stylus Pro 9000 and 9500
for printing as wide as 44 inches. Epson designed both
printers to feature a new interchangeable black ink system that allows
users to choose between the standard Photo Black ink cartridge and an
optional Matte Black ink cartridge. The Photo Black ink has been optimized
for glossy, semi gloss, luster, etc. and also supports most paper types,
while the Matte Black ink has been optimized to support a wide range of
matte papers. The three Black Ink Modes are Photo Black Mode; Matte Black
Mode and Dual Black Mode.
Both printers offer 2,880-by-1,440 dpi resolution and use variable droplets up to three different sizes per line and as small as four picoliters, and both offer full bleed (borderless) printing. The Stylus Pro 7600 and Stylus Pro 9600 list for $2,995 and $4,995 respectively and will be available in June through authorized Epson dealers. An optional Fiery Spark Professional 2.0 Software RIP is available for both at $1,995. Ritz Interactive Acquires CameraWorld.com Website Ritz Interactive, the online division of the Ritz Camera chain acquired competitor CameraWorld.com, the e-commerce operations of Camera World. The retail store is not part of this acquisition. This latest acquisition follows Ritz Interactive's purchase last month of photography e-tailer PhotoAlley.com and the aquisition of WolfCamera.com when parent Ritz camera acquired the Wolf camera chain last year. Filmguard Announces New Pro-Line Generix Imaging Products
Pro-Cleaner
for film and negatives is an emulsion cleaner that removes ballpoint and
most other inks, finger oil, grease pencil, laser separation oil, fungal
growth, smoke and soot. It is designed for modern, hardened silver-based
film, slides and negatives. A 4-ounce refillable spray bottle has a
suggested retail price of $8.95. The Pro-Cleaner 32-ounce refill bottle
has a suggested retail price of $39.95. A 24-pack of 1-ounce spray bottles
comes in an orange countertop display box, with the bottles retailing
for $3.95 apiece. Pro-Pads are
non-abrasive, ultra-soft, lint-free wipes, for use on emulsions, optics,
scanners, copiers and compact discs. A 100-pack of the 4-by-4-inch size
pads is priced at $6.50. The 6-by-6-inch size 100-pack costs $9.95. Applied Science Fiction Releases Digital ROC & Digital SHO Plug-ins for Mac Digital ROC plug-in is a powerful and time-saving tool for removing color cast from faded images and effects of tungsten and fluorescent lighting and will restore density and contrast to black and white images scanned in RGB color mode. Digital SHO automatically reveals details hidden in shadows commonly caused by exposure problems. Fully functional free trial downloads are available at www.asf.com. These trial versions will add a watermark to the final image. Fully functional versions are available for $49.95. Black River Publishing's 14th Annual Calendar Contest Black River Publishing announced their 14th annual "Outdoor Grandeur" photography contest with a $1,000 grand prize and cash prizes for all winning entries that are included in their nationally distributed 2003 calendar. Acceptable themes include outdoor scenery such as waterfalls, snow covered mountains, scenic beaches, and forests of changing leaves. Images reflecting all seasons of the year are needed. There is no limit to the number of images you can submit and entries can be submitted as prints or 35mm slides. Check out their Web site at http://www.brpub.com/contest/contest_info.htm for contest information. Entries must be received by June 30th, 2002. |
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In
an effort to curb what Representative Mark Foley (R-Florida) terms a
"disturbing increase" of Web sites that flirt with the limit of
what is child pornography, he and Representative Nick Lampson (D-Texas)
have introduced a bill titled the Child Modeling Exploitation
Prevention Act, or CMEPA. But the bill is so broadly written in
its current form that it reportedly would ban nearly all commercial
photography of minors. Large agencies such as Corbis have come out against
the bill as banning legitimate forms of child photography and
Constitutional scholars are calling the bill hopeless. 
