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What is metadata?

https://hls.harvard.edu/dept/its/what-is-metadata/

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Metadata is information stored within a document that is not evident by just looking at the file. It is an electronic "fingerprint" that automatically adds identifying characteristics, such as the creator or author of the file, the name of individuals who have accessed or edited the file, the location from which the file was accessed, and the amount of time spent editing the file. In addition to data that is automatically added to a document, there is user-introduced metadata, such as tracked changes, versions, hidden text and embedded objects.

Every time you create, open or save a Microsoft Word document, hidden information is created and stored within the document that you may not want others outside of your organization to discover. Hidden information can also reside in other Microsoft application files, such as Excel spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations and includes:

Your Name and Initials

Company Name

Computer Name

Location of Document on Local or Network Server

Attached Template

Hidden Text

Comments

Track Changes

Non-Visible Portions of OLE Objects

File Properties and Summary Information

And more ...

Document metadata have proven particularly important in legal environments in which litigation has requested metadata, which can include sensitive information detrimental to a party in court.

The following software tools are available in clinics to help remove metadata from the Microsoft suite of products:

Microsoft Office Document Inspector (available in all clinics)

Payne Consulting Metadata Assistant (available in specific clinics, see your clinical instructor for more information)

Not all metadata contains harmful or privileged information. Students should consult with their clinical instructor to determine whether metadata should be removed and which tool should be used.

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Metadata is information stored within a document that is not evident by just looking at the file. It is an electronic "fingerprint" that automatically adds identifying characteristics, such as the creator or author of the file, the name of individuals who have accessed or edited the file, the location from which the file was accessed, and the amount of time spent editing the file.

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Barton, D. & Hamilton, M. (2012) Local Literacies Revised Edition London: Routledge

Graff, H (1979) cited in Mace. J, (2005) Events, practices and values. In Fowler, E & Mace, J., eds Outside the classroom: researching literacy with adult learners Leicester: NIACE

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Barton and Hamilton (2012) say that we use and interact with 'text' in many different ways, and in numerous social settings. From my reading and producing this Padlet, I can see that how we interact with literacy has changed immensely in the last twenty or thirty years. Literacy refers not only to our ability to pick up a book but also to digital literacy and numeracy. It is important that we recognise and validate the various forms of literacy in both our personal lives and our professional lives as it means we are not excluding others  (and importantly, learners) who may use literacy in different (or less conventional) ways.

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My notice-board is a piece of self-reflection on socially situated literacy events around my photography.

There are different models of literacy, "school literacy" (Graff 1979), "literacies for employability" (or functional literacy), however, a more recent and popular view (that challenges the previous two) is that literacy is diverse and rooted in social practice; there is no standardised form. Some literacies may be recognised widely, others are informal and often underrated. Literacy is changing, evolving and growing in form and social context. (Barton and Hamilton 2012)

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In 1979, the 'Plain English Campaign' was launched when the 'right to have things readably written' was launched. (Mace.J, Talking About Literacy, pp35).

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If the image is good enough to be published in the newspaper and/or a website, there is a payment made at the end of each month.
The administration of this payment is straightforward and a remittance advice sent detailing when and where the image was used.
Again, the Agency have standard wording in their email and very little text needs to be added. I enter the amounts into my accounting software in case any Tax inspections are required.
I would also write a short description of the image used and put it on Social Media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) as this enhances the Agency image not just to photographers but to potential clients who would need an image of a player/team etc. It needs to appeal to everyone so I make it as detailed as I can with relevant hashtags to broadcast the image to the World Wide Web.
The text used should be readable by all ages as younger people are avid users of Social media but must also appeal to photo editors who search for images to print/exhibit etc.

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The role of a sports editor

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Surprisingly, photo editors do not take pictures. Instead, they conceptualize, hire photographers, handle the business side, and more.

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Apart from the technical guidelines of the image (size, pixel count etc), the text of each image is quite repetitive. This is, however, what both the Agency and the Newspaper/website Sports editors want. They don't want to have to re-type errors and readers of newspapers want quick, identifiable headlines showing player detail, game etc.
This is very easy for a photographer as text can be cut and pasted from different programs with just the minor alteration of player name each new event.
Note too, that the text of the sports editor is very basic and would appeal to all levels of reader. Broadsheets may possibly be read by more literate readers but 'Red Tops' (I appreciate this is a slang term) may be read more by football followers. Remember also that this type of newspaper has a far greater reading base.

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The Football League paper, September 2021

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This is the actual photograph used in the Football League newspaper. Note that the short text imprinted in the image is what I entered in the metadata. This saves a picture editor at the sports desk of the newspaper time as nothing is repeated.

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Screenshot of the software program I use to write text relating to the image.

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Note the Description/caption as it appears here; it is how it appeared in the newspaper.
Also note the keywords.

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Digital photographs contain metadata. Metadata is important in the image as the keywords in the file are searchable. As the images are licensed, any future use is chargeable to the Agency. There are strict rules set by the Agency as to what is written in the metadata. They are short, succinct and player detail MUST be correct. For example, if a newspaper or website need a picture of Joe BLOGGS then Joe BLOGGS MUST be in the keyword section or no search results will be returned. The Agency lose a sale.
The metadata written into the file by me is normally the headline that appears in the newspaper or website.

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https://proeliumlaw.com/why-contracts-and-formal-agreements-are-so-important-in-business-today/

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We all like to think that the industry we're in, whether that be security, defence, development, government, insurance, investigations or technology, is well swept-up and organised and often they are...to a degree.

A key-way to protect your business and ensure it's professionalism, as well as mitigating legal risk is by embracing formal contracts and all the other names given to those pieces of paper (or electronic documents) that make sure parties to an agreement know what their obligations and responsibilities are.

The purpose of this blog is just a little refresher on why contracts are so important, even if you 'just don't like them.' You could be a start-up business or have been going for some time now, contracts are relevant to business of ALL sizes.

Unsurprisingly, there are many former military working in the industries we mention. The partners of Proelium Law are former military so we recognise and enjoy working with 'our own' when we see an opportunity to do so. We're generally a trusting bunch but there can be a tendency for a little too much trust. The assumption that because a new business partner, client, employee or consultant is former military like us, they'll 'do right by us'. Generally this does still happen, the problem comes when 'external influences' get involved, something you simply can't factor into the equation and that's where, in our experience, things generally start to go wrong. The is the same for all walks of life, commonality does not always mean nothing will go wrong!

For the sake of clarity, a 'contract' is a formal process and can be either written or verbal. The word 'agreements' is also used and whilst commonly interchangeable, broadly agreements are often less formal but can become formal if the elements of a contract are in place. So, you could 'agree' to help a mate take down a tree, but it's not a 'binding contract' unless there are many more elements to that agreement, that both sides agree to and intended to be bound by or acted in a way that demonstrated they intended to be bound by it. When taught this subject at law school it was called 'Contract Law', not 'Agreement Law', so let's continue by giving the subject it's proper name.

It is our experience that smaller companies are simply not making the best use of contracts (or for that matter the best use of law firms) and trust us when we say.. time spent now, is a problem avoided in the future. No doubt you will know, if you have ever tried to do business with a large multi-national company it is normally impossible to do anything without a contract in place. This is entirely the correct procedure and one small businesses would be well advised to duplicate.

There's a lot of confusing language surrounding contracts and the different types you can have for different reasons. For example:

Non-Disclosure Agreements(NDA's) are still a contract, they are just a contract not to reveal information but the word agreement has become the norm.

Joint Venture Agreements(JV's) are increasing, still they are contracts and often given the transcending of borders becoming more normal, incredibly important (not least of which because you might be transferring data across borders).

It would be impossible to list the elements of a contract here but ultimately, a written contract is a formal, legally-binding agreement between two (or more) entities, (they could be company to consultant, company to company or many other variations), that lays-out what each side will do often in return for some form of compensation. Within the contract are terms. These terms set out the structure of the contract.

For now, here are some real basics to consider what you (and we) would be thinking about before drafting a contract:

1. Who the parties to the contract are? An increasingly important issue when it comes to knowing your client for the purposes of anti money laundering regulations.

2. How long the contract will last for and when will it end? Important if you are distinguishing from an employee or a consultant or contractor.

3. Who will perform what task and for how long, where and to what standard? Extremely important because if you can't establish these parameters, how does anyone know what they are doing for certain and how do you fix it if it goes wrong? This is the part where you both agree to do something, even if its just one party very simply agreeing to do something for the other party.

4. You may think this is obvious, that you would expect someone to keep quiet about the work they do for you, unless of course it was something you wanted to publicise; either way, ensure you control the information and highlighte the need to. Confidentiallity can be implied, but that doesn't mean the other party is aware of that.

5. Data Protection. Always important but rising up the chart for cuaisng issues between parties. Don't just assume its coefed, think about information you are sharing and protections or permissions it needs to be shared.

6. Dealing with problems Somewhere in the contract you want to work out how you'll deal with any problems that arise. Try to talk first, don't run to a law firm to start litigation straight away; putting something in the contract that says the first port of call is talking, will always help. The legal option is for later on when communication is failing.

Please don't think this list is exhaustive, far from it, this is just a taster of some of the common considerations in a contract.

Avoiding complexity in contracts

Complexity in contracts is just part of the reality of doing business today. Our advice is don't be frustrated by it, embrace it! One reason why contracts are sometimes so complex is that there is an awful lot of case law behind the particular term you read. A term is, in basic speak, one of the paragraphs in a contract with a heading above it. It isn't just lawyers being awkward, someone somewhere may have paid lot of money to test that term in court, so get comfort from that. Just because the last contract you had wasn't that long and you liked it because it was short, it doesn't mean it was a good contract.

Badly-drafted contracts

You've heard the term 'not worth the paper it's written on'? A badly- drafted contract could be what is called 'unenforceable'. What this means, in this context is, the terms would be unlikely to stand up to scrutiny, in a court room. So a badly-drafted contract could really offer you no protection or ability to enforce the terms and ultimately, could lose you money. Please, don't keep searching for an using using endless terms found on the internet and then shoe horned into your latest version of a consultants contract. It really is not going to help you.

So, why are contracts so important?

A clear, well-drafted contract (regardless of how long it is), makes it clear what is expected of someone or a company and what their position is. Knowing exactly where you stand is important, it allows better working relationships and if it does go wrong, you have a bit of paper (or electronic document) that makes it clear what should have happened from the outset.

That's all for now. If you enjoyed reading this post and would like to know more about our services, please contact us. We're always happy to have a no-obligation chat, to see if we are the right law firm to help you.

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Why 'Contracts' and 'Formal Agreements' are so important in business today

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We all like to think that the industry we're in, whether that be security, defence, development, government, insurance, investigations or technology, is well swept-up and organised and often they are...to a degree.

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As with most Legal contracts, the documents are full of implicit terms such as "the Company" becomes "us" and the named person becomes "the photographer."
The wording of the document is strict and omits probably every single problem a photographer shooting for the Agency would encounter during a season. The Agency have probably learnt through experience that the contract is amended accordingly to cover each eventuality that may have become apparent during the previous year.
It is unclear whether the contract has been written from scratch or is a 'standard' Agency/Photographer type generated by a different Company.
It is normally a pre-requisite that the photographer is insured for £5M and this is expected of most photographers shooting sport at that level. Whilst a broad assumption, it would be expected that the photographers the Agency use have a reasonable degree of literacy. Captions must be spelt correctly and some technical requirements of the image would confirm this assumption.
Contracts are important not just to safeguard the Agency and the Photographer but whenever a formal agreement is to be created. This could be either written or verbal; I always make sure it is in writing.

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This is what the Agency will send annually before each season starts.

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PRO SPORTS IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHERS CONTRACT Jan 2020 v3.0

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The second file with the .xmp extension is generated by a program at the Agency which is only applicable to the event being photographed (or shot - photographers terms). This would probably mean nothing say if the email was sent to the incorrect address. It is just a file type with metadata describing the event. Metadata is literally data about data.

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This email is not generated automatically but it could be. The first file, created by the Agency is a standard one produced each week. The only difference being that the filename reflects the event being photographed.

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The footer of the email showing the attachments

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The .jpg file is standard, the .xmp file is unique to the event.

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In this email, it is a standard output showing two separate files. One is a standard picture which is exactly the same each game; the second file, an XML file varies each time to suit the game being covered. This file contains a number which is unique to the game or event being covered. This allows the Agency to archive the images for future use.

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What I do after the game is finished

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What goes on at the venue

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How to prepare for a game