Being a graphic artist and web designer, when I design a site for a customer (In this case a Honda dealership), I very commonly use press archives and special dealer logins for various manufacturers to get the required images for the design. Many times my customers are not very technically oriented and don't know how to access those resources themselves (Many of the dealerships are provided these resources through their distributor or directly via the manufacturer). So when a customer asks me for a picture of a "New 2009 Product" I hop on the manufacturer's site and grab the image I need.
I've never had any issue from manufacturers, until that is Honda and their arrogant pissy attitude came my way. All manufactuerer's I've worked with (even the overseas ones) were willing to bend over backwards for me to help me get graphics for their dealerships - whom they WANT to have looking good with nice graphics. Honda, however, decided to now allow anyone into their press archives (except people with super-uber press credentials), which is funny because all of their products have publicly available lower-resolution images, but yet decided to send me a threatening email when I asked for access to the higher-resolution images (Sometimes I need the picture a little larger to zoom in on the product). Not only was their letter threatening and unprofessional, the guy had an attitude and copied some other employees at Honda (Maybe to wave his oh-so-powerful penis of doom around?) God only knows what his problem was.
If Honda doesn't want me to have access to any of their images, WHY DO THEY MAKE THE SMALLER IMAGES PUBLICLY AVAILABLE? Obviously they have ISSUES and ATTITUDES to boot. I think a company with that sort of strategy will not last long. It's a shame because I'm a professional designer out to help their dealerships out by providing them with the MEANS TO SELL HONDA PRODUCT. Why Honda HATES designers so bad is beyond me. Well, when they have dealerships dropping off from the Honda brand because of their too-strict nasty rules and attitudes, well they'll KNOW WHY.
Oh and a note to Autoweek on your August '08 Article:
Integrity my ass.. The only thing they are protecting is their own convoluted sense of self-importantance.
