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Foo Fighters Try To Stiff Photographers. Quebec Paper Sends Cartoonist Instead.

"...the requirements being imposed by the Foo Fighters are among the strictest we've seen at FEQ."

Quebec photographers are refusing to put up with musicians' "onerous" contracts.

First, they protested Taylor Swift's tour by declining to take pictures at her concert at Montreal's Centre Bell last week.

Now, newspaper Le Soleil has responded to the Foo Fighters' demands not by boycotting, but by sending cartoonist Francis Desharnais to draw their concert at Festival d'été de Québec (FEQ) on Saturday night.

Explaining the decision to send the cartoonist, arts journalist Genevieve Bouchard wrote that Le Soleil refused to sign a contract that would have only allowed the newspaper to use their own pictures once, with an article about the concert.

Like the contract that Taylor Swift's tour made photographers sign, it would have also guaranteed the photo rights to the Foo Fighters "in perpetuity."

"While Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars refused to allow photographers at all, the requirements being imposed by the Foo Fighters are among the strictest we've seen at FEQ," Bouchard wrote.

The newspaper's decision to send a cartoonist has been noted around the world, in outlets such as The Guardian and NME.

But this isn't the first time that a newspaper has taken issue with the Foo Fighters' demands.

The Washington City Paper relied on fan photos for coverage of the band's 20th anniversary show in D.C. after having a look at the contract.

Foo Fighters management told the outlet that such agreements are standard practice, and that they "protect the band."

"But that's not even close to being true," the paper wrote.

"The Rolling Stones, to name one huge act, aren't demanding newspapers sign over their pictures and the Stones are in the middle of selling out half of the stadiums in North America."

However, in the case of the Foo Fighters' Quebec concert, there might not have been as much opportunity for photos as at other shows anyway.

The band only played four songs before their concert was called off due to a storm.

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Patrick Bruel

FEQ 2015

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