After a phone call with Terry Ng at Kineda we have come to an agreement only two days after the blog post about my image being lifted from flickr to promote a contest. Today’s post has several great links for web publishers, bloggers, photographers and journalists.
The “Win / Lose” (Kineda / Acme) situation turned to “Lose / Lose” and now it’s as close to “Win / Win” as it’ll be thanks to a collaborative blogging effort.
Kineda wrote a great blog post on “Fair Use” and what Terry learned through our phone conversation about photos and copyright.
I learned a good lesson today in the use of photos on your blog found on the web — not every image is free.
While looking for an image to use on my Vote for Kineda post a few weeks ago, I scoured the search engines for something that conveyed the feeling of being happy. Up came the perfect image that I cropped and used without second thought. It’s the usual process that I take and I’m sure many other bloggers take when looking for a matching image to go with a post.
In reading photographers ranting on forums and message boards, I’m realizing that this is a problem that can only be solved by educating fellow bloggers. Two days ago, I choose to blog about this before I contacted anyone. In fact Terry commented on my blog, sent me an email AND left a voicemail after he was notified by Glam Network of my blog post. It’s great that he was motivated to be proactive.
In the past I’ve emailed websites who infringe and they say, “Ah, sorry, We didn’t know.. but we removed it.” (Or blamed it on an “intern”.) If I were to ask for link credit on an old blog post, how much credit would that be after the post is buried in the archives? I shouldn’t have to blog this stuff every time, and it would could get old, however it is interesting to see the power of blog post, and self journalism.
You can find a TON of information on Copyright at Standford University Library.
There are many sections and here are a few brief highlights.
In talking about websites they have 5 tips.
#1 is the most important
- Assume it’s Protected (click for all 5) . — As a general rule, it is wise to operate under the assumption that all works are protected by either copyright or trademark law unless conclusive information indicates otherwise. A work is not in the public domain simply because it has been posted on the Internet (a popular fallacy) or if it lacks a copyright notice (another myth).
- The Basics of Getting Permission. (in depth via the link)
- Determine if permission is needed.
- Identify the owner.
- Identify the rights needed.
- Contact the owner and negotiate whether payment is required.
- Get your permission agreement in writing
How about You?
Have you had your work used and represented as someone else’s? Did someone use your WordPress theme, steal some code, or remix your work? How did you go about contacting the other person? How did that work?
Until next time,
Adam Nollmeyer
acmephotography.net
