How do they propose to enforce it?

And just what do they say gives them the right to enforce such a restriction on the freedom of these artists? Was there a contract with such a condition when local artists accepted the instruction? If so for what consideration? Were they informed of it beforehand?

Is there no "restraint of trade" legislation in the US?

I can just about see them making a restriction on sales of work produced in the classes stick, perhaps, or even with materials supplied by the council, again perhaps, but a wider restriction, never.

To be patentable an idea or a product has to be new and original. Simply to change the size of a mount, or vary the bayonet lugs etc. is not new or original. If it were doing something in a new way, or doing something in itself itself new that could be patentable. But simply to make a mount slightly different but doing the same job in essentially the same way, that is not patentable. I don't know enough about Canon's mount to comment, but I've yet to be told it does anything more than most existing digital camera mounts.

It may be open to copyright protection though.

A bit like someone making a bicycle wheel 15mm larger, patenting it and saying no one else is allowed to make tyres in this new size!!

Would you rather buy a car from Toyota that will double in price, or one from another manufacturer that will half in price over the same period?

I too use digital and film. Probably get more of my better pictures from digital, but a great deal of pleasure from film plus some excellent pictures too.

Using film means using TLRs, rangefinders, folders, medium format SLRs and LF sheet film cameras, All handle differently, make you think slightly differently, take a different approach, and so give a picture different from what a digital camera would have given.

At the end of the day it's what the photographer includes in the picture and how it affects the viewer that makes an image good or not, so anyone with any sense would try all the approaches available? Or perhaps anyone with sense would perfect their technique in just one medium? You pays your money and takes your choice.

Having used Viltrox speedboosters for a number of years, albeit on M4/3 cameras, with some excellent vintage glass from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, etc, I cannot necessarily agree with the suggestion of a material effect upon image quality. It very much depends upon the make. Compared to the images obtained using dumb adaptors with the Viltrox there is little or no reduction in quality. The advantages of increased speed and reduction in focal length make them a very good addition to the kit bag. I print up to 2 feet x 3 feet so any effect would be easily noticeable.

For the price, around £110 in the UK, the Viltrox is excellent. The Metabones is far more expensive, having seen how good the Viltrox performs I'm unconvinced the extra money would be worth it, but it is certainly a quality product.

I've tried other brands too, they have degraded the IQ.

I have to agree about teleconvertors though. Some have been very disappointing, though some few, the Olympus ones designed specifically for particular lenses, are excellent and simply do the job with no IQ drawbacks. (Doubtless Canon, Nikon etc versions would perform as well too).

Set the camera to save in large file JPG and RAW.

Set the camera to take in B+W. The viewfinder will show the scene in b+w, allowing you to visualise what the b+w picture will look like. This is much better than viewing in colour and using your mind's eye to convert. You will get better b+w pictures this way.

You will also have a b+w jpg and a colour RAW file. Often working on and converting the RAW file into b+w will give a better final picture, but for the visualising before pressing the shutter, use b+w mode so you see the monochrome image before capture.

Try a bean bag. With a solid support (wall, tree, stationary car etc.) they can provide stable support to the longest lens, supporting along the length of the barrel. and they do not cost $100's, nor weigh too much. Much easier to carry any distance.

Of course there are many situations where a tripod does work better, or even is the only solution, but similarly there are times when a tripod cannot be used, or slows you down too much, or is just too inconvenient.

If you must have a tripod the advice above is sound, I'd suggest you go to a retailer and give a few models a try. Within reason the head is more important than the legs imo, Manfrotto, Gitzo, and a number of others make excellent models.

Take a MF film camera. A quick clout round the head with a Koni Omega Rapid will see off most people, and if they do get away with it they won't want to carry it far.

Print quality, I print up to 24" wide from an OMD em1 mk1, and the quality is very good using Qimage so wouldn't worry about not being able to print large on any of your systems.
(Can't see the point in having APS C and full frame gear? M43 really good for travel, walking, just carrying around town. FF with any sort of long lens becomes very cumbersome.

Reality? What we see is not reality. What we see is a function of our photoreceptors, processed through out brains optical centre and interpreted by the mind. The camera also processes, but in the example given doesn't process shadows in the same way the brain does. To recreate our "reality" in a photograph needs post processing. it will be done first in the camera, digitally by the manufacturers software, then to the taste of the operator in the computer. Every photograph is processed, to pretend otherwise is to ignore reality. Even film, the film sensitivity, the developer, temperature etc. Then the printing.
to take a principled position that "I don't approve of processing" is simply to say "I prefer my pictures processed by the camera maker only."

ShowFoto for simple tasks, has the best sharpening tool of all I've tried. GIMP (with G'mic) for more involved tasks. All free software in both senses of the term.

A cool camera or lens taken into warm moist air will suffer from condensation. Keeping the camera and lens in an airtight container (ziplock bag) until it has warmed to the ambient temperature is the best way to avoid it.

Condensation is not only inconvenient. it will damage or degrade your equipment by:
a. providing moisture for fungus to grow on lens or sensor, and
b. trapping dust from the air, which means more cleaning, therefore more cleaning marks, and can be hard to reach inside a lens or on a sensor, and provides a base and food source on which the fungus mentioned above grows.

For the sake of your camera, not just that day's pictures, avoid condensation if at all possible, don't just accept it and wait for it to evaporate again.

Take a beanbag to stabilise the camera in vehicle from where most of your pictures will be taken and it will also damp vibration from the engine, which can often be running when you see a decent shot. Much more convenient for you, and others, than a monopod. (I've done game safaris in Africa and Asia, and never used either a tripod or monopod, nor felt the lack of them,)

By giving it to her as a present.

Precision Colors, InkOwl, and in the UK and Europe OctoInk. All excellent, all no more likely to clog than OEM ink. But you must use an inkjet printer reasonably frequently or risk a clog.