The Scribe

By Russell Huffman

(The last thing I ever wanted to do was sit down and pen a tale that would end up hurting the cowboys I have come to know, but the truth be known the cowboys riding in the PBR are considered nothing more than hamburger -- no pun intended. Every time they climb on the back of a bucking bull they place their very life in danger and it all drifts back to not if but when you get hurt and how bad. It's a choice they make and I respect them for it. This isn't a story designed to hurt the cowboys, just tell how they are being eaten by a machine that makes millions of dollars off their backs with little payback for most.)

In 2005, I found out the Professional Bull Riders Inc. and one its licensees didn't want to give me credit for my work.  Oddly enough, after this website appeared, it's a whole different story.  And yes, boys and girls, I'm telling this cowboy's story of how I was robbed of my works.

For more than two years I have been run through a legal wringer over the issue of Publicity Rights involving pictures on a website.  These pictures were legally obtained photographs involving riders on the PBR's lower tiers and the ABBI.  The real issue wasn't Publicity Rights, but the fact I had complained that the ABBI/PBR was using the pictures without my knowledge or consent to advertise their industries.

Because I fell in love with shooting pictures of bucking bulls from the first snap of my shutter, I was willing to work through the issue of copyright violations — A serious crime?   I asked for $200 more than the $450 being offered for six pictures.  What followed was conspiracy and collusion to shutdown my website and drive me out of business.

From being accused of being a thief to being asked dumb questions like, "Are you carrying a gun" during a legal deposition, I've been run through the legal wringer.  More than 1,000 miles of driving for a pair of depositions that in neither featured a question like, "Did you sell any pictures of my clients?"  Instead I was screamed at by a "hack" lawyer, who is rumored to be the sports agents' brother-in-law.  It was a baseless legal witch hunt that only lacked a Carpet Bag.  A real credit to his law firm!

I've been treated like a criminal in my own home town, been laughed at and had cowboys involved in this case shrug their shoulders and blame it on their agent.  In fact, you ask the folks involved with the PBR "who's at fault over the misuse of my photographs?"  Nobody wishes to step forward or even cast the blame.  Not the contractor who provided a "for display" photo to the publisher, not the publisher who reproduced ten's of thousands of my pictures, not the ABBI or PBR who profited from my work.

Lies have a way with catching up with people or organizations that like to bulldoze the little guy.  This website is working toward helping set the story straight.  Read the documents and make your own decisions.  Did the PBR profit from my work?  Did they get in bed with a sports agent, they privately profess to "hate", simply to avoid copyright issues?  Could the people involved have avoided this by simply paying me the $200 extra I asked?  If my pictures were good enough to fill more than 20 percent of such a high-caliber project — they were good enough to pay me too.

LEGAL NOTICE:  Unless otherwise stated, all photographs, digital images, logos, stories, and other text content on this website are the exclusive property of Russell Huffman.   © 2005-2007 Russell Huffman.   They are protected by the U.S. copyright laws, and are not to be copied, digitally stored, or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Russell Huffman.

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