| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Are blogs stealing your photos?
Karl Anderson, Student/Intern, Photographer
 |
Lubbock | TX | USA | Posted: 1:05 AM on 04.09.10 |
->> What are everyone's thoughts on advertising-sponsored blogs using images without permission, credit and compensation?
My specific example involves my sports images pulled from espn.com and si.com. They were displayed on blogs without my permission or photo credit and I certainly did not receive payment for them. I e-mailed the blog administrators and requested that they either credit me and send me a check, or remove my image. Most removed my images without any questions.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. |
|
Mark Peters, Photographer
|
Highland | IL | USA | Posted: 1:12 AM on 04.09.10 |
->> Why limit it to advertising-sponsored blogs?
None of them should be doing this. |
|
Scott Serio, Photo Editor, Photographer
|
Colora | MD | USA | Posted: 9:59 AM on 04.09.10 |
->> There is a serious lack of understanding and/or education on the part of many blog-types regarding right to images. Some barely even understand the definition of Copyright, All Rights Reserved and Creative Commons Rights.
While most will take the image down when asked, I should not have to spend several hours a week checking the internet for images lifted by blogs or other media that they use without attribution or compensation. I have had quite a few say, "Oh, I thought it fell under Common Use."
Now, the image I found from one of my colleagues that Racingpost.com took. Wow. They are a major organization and they lifted an image, cropped out the copyright notice and even attributed it to Getty - which it was not.
And wait until CS5...woohoo. The hunt for pilfered pix will get harder. |
|
Steve Boyle, Photographer
|
Philadelphia | PA | USA | Posted: 10:13 AM on 04.09.10 |
->> This helps in some cases and this technology is only getting better.
http://www.tineye.com/ |
|
Butch Miller, Photographer
|
Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 11:20 AM on 04.09.10 |
->> " There is a serious lack of understanding and/or education on the part of many blog-types regarding right to images. Some barely even understand the definition of Copyright, All Rights Reserved and Creative Commons Rights."
This isn't just a problem with bloggers but our society in general. There are no qualification to be a blogger, just need to create one. The vast majority of folks consider that anything they can access via the web is "theirs" to do with as they please. I mean, it takes very little surfing the net to discover so called professional photographers who "borrow" images from other shooters and use them as online portfolio pieces and to add insult to injury ... Top 40 background music they have no license for.
If we want to share our images on the web or license them to others for use on the web .... "stealing" is a problem we have to deal with ...
What would be mind boggling is if we only knew just how much abuse is actually going on. Even with modern technology designed to seek out images ... who has the time to police the entire internet ... and then have the time to follow up on the abuses ... I know of one fellow who has been trying for two years to get his images off a web site based in Indonesia ... darn near impossible to get it done unless you have great patience ... and VERY deep pockets. |
|
Brian Dowling, Photographer
|
Philadelphia | PA | USA | Posted: 12:03 PM on 04.09.10 |
| ->> You can check your referral stats for starters to see where your traffic/usage is coming from. I use www.analog.cx set up to run once a week, but I think Google will do about the same. |
|
Karl Anderson, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Lubbock | TX | USA | Posted: 1:13 PM on 04.09.10 |
->> Here is the most recent offender:
http://www.joebucsfan.com/
After about a week of e-mails, my image was finally removed. The administrator claimed that nobody profited from the ads on the site and therefore had no means to compensate me. If you look at the advertising tab, it clearly shows that advertisers pay $449/month.
I encourage all of you to browse for your images and e-mail joe@joebucsfan.com to request its removal. I'm guessing at least one image per page is from a sportsshooter member. |
|
Chris Peterson, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Columbia Falls | MT | USA | Posted: 1:25 PM on 04.09.10 |
->> I send out e-mails fairly regularly, using google in reverse to see whose stealing my stuff. Most take them down immediately. Some get pissy. It's the nature of the beast. You post something. Someone else steals it.
If you don't want stuff stolen, don't post it. Or make it small. |
|
Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
|
Alan Herzberg, Photographer
|
Elm Grove | WI | USA | Posted: 7:02 PM on 04.09.10 |
| ->> I'm somewhat insulted that more of my photos aren't stolen. |
|
Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
|
San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 7:10 PM on 04.09.10 |
->> Alan,
You can dream.
--Mark |
|
Karl Anderson, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Lubbock | TX | USA | Posted: 2:02 AM on 04.12.10 |
->> The blog administrator disagreed with the accuracy of my post and wanted me to clear it up. His direct quote was:
"...I assure you that my Web site doesn't "make money" and doesn't have any "profits" to share."
My paraphrase:
"The administrator claimed that nobody profited from the ads on the site and therefore had no means to compensate me." |
|
Butch Miller, Photographer
|
Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 11:48 AM on 04.12.10 |
->> Karl, of course accurate quoting is always preferred ... however ... the blogger's inability to generate a profit has absolutely nothing to do with his arrogance in believing he can "borrow" any materials he wishes to share with his readers.
This person is offering a vehicle with hopes to attract an audience. This person is also offering space at a fee for advertising with hopes his audience will support those advertisers. Not your fault he can't make any money at it ....
Content providers should at least me made aware of such intended use by bloggers beforehand and have the ability to charge a fair fee, grant permission and restrictions for use or opt out altogether ....
If as a society we are going to equate "blogging" as journalism ... bloggers must operate by the same rules and laws as their print and video counterparts must. |
|
Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
|
San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 12:10 PM on 04.12.10 |
->> Making a profit off of a copyright infringement has no bearing on whether it's an infringement. The infringer could still be on the hook for statutory penalties even if they never made, or intended to make, a single cent.
--Mark |
|
Hal Smith, Photographer
|
Sedalia | MO | USA | Posted: 3:30 PM on 04.12.10 |
->> Oh my god yes!
Last fall my newspaper did a story about our local high school marching band having to return T-shirts promoting their band competition program entitled, "Evolution of brass." The T-shirt used a famous illustration of a monkey evolving into man. A few band parents were upset that the band had used the imagery, and we reported the story of the controversy using a photograph of the shirt. The story and image were both lifted directly from the newspaper website and could be found in blogs around the world.
I was able to contact a few of the bloggers and have the image removed from their sites, but I could not convince many other site managers that what they were doing was in fact plagiarism and misappropriation of content, otherwise known as copyright infringement.
Few of blogs linked to our website, they were directly doing a copy and paste not giving credit to the reporter, photographer or even the newspaper.
The story was picked up by the AP putting an end to the direct copying from our site. |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|