With social media becoming ever more ubiquitous, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that we’re seeing more and more ‘open letters’ come to the fore. With an audience and instant publication at any willing author’s fingertips, even popular artists have jumped on board with the trend.

Many readers will be aware of the increasingly convoluted back and forth that erupted between Irish singer Sinead O’Connor and Miley Cyrus in the wake of O’Connor’s open letter warning Cyrus not to sacrifice her talent and urging her to stop “allowing [her]self to be pimped”.

Another prominent female artist that’s been involved in an ‘open letter situation’, as Stereogum notes, is Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson, who penned a scolding missive aimed at Kanye West after the rapper criticised Beck’s most recent Grammy Award win.

Garbage are currently in the midst of planning of a self-released book about the band and their management company, Big Picture Music Co, recently reached out to photographer Pat Pope about potentially using some photos he took of the band back in the ’90s.

In an open letter posted to his Facebook page, Pope claimed that management requested to use his photos with “proper credit” because the budget was “financially limited”. Essentially, they used the old “no money, but it’s great exposure” line on the photographer.

“I’m a firm believer that musicians and artists deserve to be paid for their work,” Pope wrote. “Do you think “content providers”, whatever the hell that means, deserve to be paid for their work, or is that a special category for musicians? If I want to release a music album, can I use your music in it if I give you a ‘proper credit’?”

Pope also argued that giving free use of his photos sets a dangerous precedent. “It seems to me that the person who writes down ‘zero [dollars] for photos’ today is the same person who will write down ‘zero for music’ tomorrow because they don’t respect the ‘content providers,'” he said.

However, in their own open letter posted to Facebook, Garbage have pointed out several inconsistencies in the photographer’s letter. For one thing, they say that Pope was compensated for his work, back in the ’90s when he first shot them.

“We regret that you interpreted our request so negatively. HAVING ALREADY paid you in 1995 for the entire shoot from which these images were selected, we really didn’t expect such a hostile reception to our enquiry,” they write.

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“We adore the photographs you took of us at such a special time in our career but it was never our intent to use the aforementioned images without your express permission.” The band write that while the photos were already paid for they wouldn’t want to use them without Pope’s permission.

They continue by insisting the expense of putting out a book without a publisher. In fact, they almost scrapped the book idea entirely. Their decision to ask for use of the images (for free, that is) was inspired by Amanda Palmer’s book The Power Of Asking.

“Any refusal of permission would be respectfully accepted and no further questions asked,” they write. According to the band’s letter, numerous other photographers have agreed to let them use their images for free and their request came in the spirit of artistic community and collaboration.

However, despite some valid points, not everyone is convinced of the band’s argument, even their fans. As one commenter wrote in response, “Pat may have been paid for that shoot, but a payment doesn’t mean you get to use the photographs forever unless that’s part of the contract signed at the time.”

“It might be that other photographers are alright with waiving a reprint fee on a book, but that doesn’t mean that a blanket assumption should be made across the board. Nor should the idea that the band can afford to do this work for free ought to mean that anyone else should feel obligated to hand over their work for nothing.”

While we’ll leave it up to you to decide who’s in the wrong here, . Just so you know, this is actually an improvement on the management of your Absolute Garbage album where the record company just used my work without even asking. I only found this out when I went into a shop and bought a copy, which, when you think about it, has a certain irony.

AN OPEN LETTER TO GARBAGE Dear Shirley, Butch, Duke and SteveI don't know if you will remember me, my name's Pat…

Posted by Pat Pope on Thursday, April 2, 2015

Dear Pat PopeWe were all deeply saddened to read your Facebook post in which you admonished us for approaching you to…

Posted by Garbage on Friday, April 3, 2015

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