YAHOO BEATS UP ON BROOKLYN ARTIST

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
YAHOO BEATS UP ON BROOKLYN ARTIST

On Saturday, June 2nd at 5:00pm., in Bedford Stuyvesant on the garden level of a brownstone renovated into an art gallery, Zion Gallery will present their show Honoring Men, featuring work by Trevor Brown, Stephan L. Davis, Cornell Jones and Corey Lightfoot. If it was up to Yahoo and their recent acquirement FlickR (a photo sharing community) this neighborhood art gallery should close up shop and the artist/photographer Mr. Brown should stick to his day job.

“I am so disappointed because without FlickR and community support there I would not have had the courage to present my work publicly” say Trevor Brown, an articulate charming young man with shoulder length locs.

On May 28th in preparation for the Saturday show Mr. Brown spend his morning; reaching out to the FlickR community to share his excitement about his first public offline exhibition. The community he loved responded with excitement with their odd assortment of creative names:

s,B - Leader of the Wachoo Wachoo Tribe says:
I would so totally come to this exhibition, but I'm too far away also.....

Mr. Brown felt very encourage until at 1:29pm he received an email from FlickR’s TOS (terms of service):

In joining Flickr, you agreed to abide by the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. Flickr accounts are intended for individual use, for our members to share photos that they've taken, not to sell stuff:

"Don't Use Flickr for Commercial Purposes Flickr is for personal use only. If you sell products, services or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account. Any other commercial use of Flickr, Flickr technologies (including APIs, Flickrmail, etc), or Flickr accounts must be approved by Flickr."

We've received multiple complaints from the community. Please remove the following post from all groups you submitted it to within 24 hours so that we don't have to take further action on your account:

Brown said “This same ‘community’ had viewed my 500 photos over 117,185 times, and there was increased traffic and positive feedback hitting my account right after the exhibition postings, I felt very betrayed and confused.”

Zion Gallery curator Fedrecia Hartley expressed her outrage, “Trevor has such beautiful work, I am so honored to have him participating in this show, his work has warmth and beauty that I think will resonate with the people in the community, I am saddened Yahoo wants to single him out for persecution.”

Mr. Brown a former entrepreneur did not take the affront sitting down and promised the following “I will donate all the proceeds from sales minus curator’s fees to the Brooklyn Arts Council. I am so insulted by Yahoo’s allegations”.

Mr. Brown is also seeking legal representation for a personal lawsuit against Yahoo/FlickR to the tune of one million thirty-five dollars ($1,000,035.00). “I am a new artist this is my first show, and Yahoo is trying to harsh my mellow, I want to send a message to them that I will not lay down and be trampled over when I am just trying to show my art”. Mr. Brown said there is also talk of a class action suit against Yahoo Incorporated, because he feels there are other artist who have felt resticted by FlickR’s TOS changes and account restrictions.

Honoring Men Art Exhibition, will run from June 1 to July 7, 2007, opening reception on June 2 from 5:00pm – 9:00pm at Zion Gallery 152 Mac Donough Street, Garden Level (between Throop and Marcus Garvey) Bedford Stuyvesant, NY 11216 (718) 919 8014 www.ZionGalleryBedstuy.com. The Zion Gallery will also be participating once again the Bedstuy Strut coming up later in the summer.