Ken,
The relationship remains to abuse through not paying photographers for use of their work. Otherwise I agree, it's not photography.
Asher
Oh tosh. Why must camera owners frame everything in mercantile terms? Really, do you imagine that anything of any value will be stolen by this process? Do you imagine that anything of great value will be produced by the potential commercialization of this Chinese computer project? It's primary value, like so many other ACM paper projects, will be to become an entertaining computer toy. I guarantee that the core techniques are lifted from security surveillance technology. (I reviewed several such latter products as part of a venture cap board 10+ years ago.)
Yes, Richard Prince made millions from repurposing commercial photos of yore (for which the original photographers were richly paid to create). That notion chaps many photographers' buns but so what? They're mainly envious...and they're far, far outside the market for Prince's art so who cares? It's perfectly legal and legit.
Photography has been repurposed and resynthesized nearly since its creation. My good friend, and Assistant Curator of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, Liz Siegel has just finished a 5+ year project researching Victorian photocollage. An effort which has, this month, culminated in a
fascinating exhibit featuring an album recently acquired by the AIC. (You can walk through the whole album online, which I encourage.) Here was a wealthy, probably bored, but very talented woman (probably the wife of a Swedish diplomat) who was clipping photos of people and placing them into some outlandish watercolor art pieces of her own creation. She was by no means unique in this hobby; it was a rage...one hundred and thirty+ years ago.
So again I say, "tosh". It's all fun. Photography is just not that damn serious or important. It's core value, perhaps its main value, is that it's fun. People who are really bothered that their work may be "stolen" should either (a) never show their photos anywhere or, (b) take up something more difficult and monumental...like sculpture.