PUBLIC MARKS from multilinko with tag printing

CNET News.com and The New Yorks Times (no registration required) report that even though the prices of printers have dropped up to 30 percent in the last few months thanks to a savage price war, buyers are going to pay at least 28 cents a print. This is if you believe the manufacturers' math. It could be closer to 50 cents a print if you trust the testing of product reviewers at Consumer Reports. In the meantime, the price of printing a 4-by-6-inch snapshot at a retailer's photo lab, like those inside a Sam's Club, is as low as 13 cents.

When Morgan's mother and a client recently took CDs with some of his shots to a printing lab, the photo technicians spurned them. They said that since the shots seemed to have been taken by a professional, printing the pictures might be a copyright violation.

When cameras used only film, consumers didn't have much of a choice about where to get their photos printed, unless they had a darkroom at home. Now, with 80 per cent of cameras sold this year projected to be digital models, consumers have more options than ever about where, or even if, to print their snapshots. One result is an all-out war among retailers, printer manufacturers and on-line companies like Snapfish for a piece of the $8.2-billion (U.S.) pie that the Photo Marketing Association International said consumers spent on printing photos last year