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Copyright And The Citizenry

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Check out The Washington Post’s article – “Hey, Isn’t That . . . People Are Doing Double-Takes, And Taking Action, As Web Snapshots Are Nabbed for Commercial Uses” article , where, apparently, some unlucky citizen had their web snapshot stolen from her blog and used in a NFL playoffs game broadcast. Examples continue regarding the Virgin Mobile ad in Australia, and so on.

Seems that when it comes to the citizenry, TWP cares. When it comes to ensuring the longevity of the craft of photography by paying a fair rate (read sustaining) to their freelancers, well then, who cares?
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Originally published on Photo Business News & Forum on January 9, 2008. Comments are closed; this post is part of the archive.

5 thoughts on “Copyright And The Citizenry”

  1. […] some unlucky citizen had their web snapshot stolen from her blog and used in a NFL playoffs game broadcast […]

    Why unlucky? Is there no legal room to sue them into paying for using that foto (see Dan Heller)?
  2. Perhaps as more of those folks get hit with swiped photos they will begin to understand copyrights & the importance of protecting AND respecting them.
  3. I’m shocked and surprised that a settlement was paid in any of those cases. The “Big Boys” have legal staffs on the payroll and they know that most amateurs don’t know their rights and will be scared by the threat of going through the legal process. They bank on the fact that one of two things will happen: 1) The amateur will be so happy that they had a picture published that they’ll be willing to take no remuneration (except for maybe a photo credit) for the “opportunity” of being published, or 2) if they do squawk; the entity’s legal staff will come down on them like hellfire so they should take what they are offered and just walk away.

    This all boils down to the fact that these “free” photo-hosting services need to make money and the online ads are not filling the coffers fast enough. So you the “photo hostee” click the agreed button without reading the fine print just to get your images up there so that your friends and family can see them. But by clicking that agreed button, you bypass that fine print that might say “that for you to have the privilege of putting your digital images on our site, we can if we choose; use your photos for any purposes that we want and not pay you for them”. They could also go as far as stating that you agree; by clicking this button, to transfer all rights to these images to (put the photo-hosting website name here) that you place on our servers.

    Open your eyes and please read this fine print. The only way to protect yourself from this unscrupulous practice; is to read the fine print; or apply for copyright from the Copyright office for your images, or both.

    Also beware of the fine print when you enter a photo contest. More and more scammers are using photo contests to get photographers to pay (in some cases) and steal away your rights when you enter these contests. You would be shocked to see the names of some of the corporations that might not charge an entry fee but get you to sign your rights over to them.
  4. The image of the dog was stolen from filckr and clearly marked all rights reserved. There is no fine print on flickr that allows this usage if image is marked all rights reserved that I can find. Do not blame the victim of theft here. The only difference amateur her is the pro would have registered the copyright and be able to collect usage fees and damages much more easily than the amateur. No matter how you slice it it is stealing and the only real way to protect yourself short of not putting your photos out there is to register your copyright.
  5. Since this will be googled some day by someone seeking advice on this subject, then lets list the sites that do take rights for posting.
    Chris P

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