PARIS—The celebrated French photographer Bettina Rheims has been charged with plagiarism and ordered to pay a fine of €30,000 ($38,000), reports Artforum via Der Standard. A French court ruled that Rheims, best known for her erotic images of women, had infringed on copyright by using an image by German artist Jakob Gautel in a montage; the work features Gautel's photograph with the word "paradis" written over an image of a toilet door.

Meanwhile, more than 200 members of France's 1,600-member photographers' union demonstrated about current publication practices at the Salon de la Photo in Paris, Artforum reports via the Agence France-Presse. Specific concerns included the editorial practice of publishing photographs by unknown photographers with the abbreviation DR, for "droits réservés" or "rights reserved." While previously used only in the rare case when a photographer could not be located, and then usually temporarily, the abbreviation has become more prevalent as publications with shrinking budgets try to make use of photos they can run for free, usually acquired from municipal offices, administrations, and the press departments of large companies.

“There’s a real crisis of photography,” union president Pierre Clot told the AFP. “There are groups of highly specialized magazines that no longer have a budget for photographs.”

He warns that the increasing use of free images is "very dangerous, because if the photographers have no more income, then they will disappear.”