Exhilaration was over the top at the public gathering of hundreds of thousands supporting the OXI(NO) demonstration in July 2015 at Syntagma square, Athens, Greece. People voted NO at 62% on the referendum asking them if they want to accept the European community ugly terms of austerity.
It was actually the first time in my life I decided to vote on something since all previous elections did not represent any of my will or political stance.
I was glad and proud that my fellow citizens were voting for something meaningful for once, standing up to the forces of the grand centralised powers of bureaucrats and bankers of the EU.
That night I took my flying drone camera over the full of people square and shot photos and video of the demonstration.
I'm not a known photographer neither I had many followers but one photo went viral after I posted it on twitter on the same night.
I was very happy that my picture travelled on thousands of screens then and many was sharing it on Facebook and other social media.
So this is the first and sweet part of the story.
Then what happened was that our government betrayed all their promises as people had voted YES on the referendum. And then the shitstorm started and we had a new government with mostly the same people and faces but with upside down promises and thinking and ideology.
That "new" government had a symposium a few months later and while I was watching it on the tv I saw that viral photo of mine in a gigantic poster print 7 by 4 meters just next to the speaker and I was shocked because they never asked for my permission or ever mentioned my name as a creator and they even wiped out my logo of the original photo.
I was further shocked when I contacted them to ask explanation for this extreme misuse of my picture and all I got as an answer was a lame response pretty much telling me to go piss my self when I mentioned the official copyrights protection organisation fees.
I had to use a lawyer and a some months later we came to an agreement with the political party SYRIZA that still runs the government in Greece.
The agreement was that they will give me some money, NOT according to the copyright protection agency fees but mostly to shut me up by signing a paper that Im not asking anything else for that picture.
I had to agree since if I wanted to wait for a legal trial it would took more than 6 to 9 years to stand in front of a judge.
They paid me under the table without a receipt.
By the way I'm happy to be back and posting at steemit after a long period of absence.
I see this community growing and is actually very promising for more decentralised dreams.
Light and love
Chris
Damn. They are amazing photos. All the energy and beauty of the place and people are really shown in your shots. Keep it up, I would love to see more post coming from you. Followed.
I am an architecture student and a part time graphic design. I do design on world famous landscape and buildings.
If you have any free time, please do visit my post too.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@ronluilh/hi-steemit-i-am-a-graphic-designer
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