Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg Bell
Okay, I know there are all kinds of license and usage rights when it comes to digital photos. I pay close attention to all that when I buy a photo for using it on an ebook cover. But I like to post interesting pics on Twitter and there are so few places that you can find absolutely free (usually public domain) digital photos to use (even without attribution). And many places have usage rights filters, and once you choose a filter like 'labeled for noncommerical use with modification' the photos available for the most part stink.
I am not using any photos commercially. I'm just posting them on Twitter. What I want to do is just tweet whatever photo I find on Google Images or wherever. And in other places like Flickr or Creative Commons or Wikimedia I want to post the photos without researching the licensing requirements (time consuming) and giving the attribution often requested.
What happens if I tweet a licensed photo or don't give attribution? Is somebody going to sue me?
And hey, I'm a writer. I don't want people pirating my stuff. But I actually wouldn't mind them spreading it around a bit to increase my exposure.
So I kind of know the answer to all my questions, but I wanted to see what your guys experience is with this and if maybe you could help me adopt a reasonable strategy for posting photos. Thanks!
|
Gregg:
You're not thinking that through. If you repost a blog, you're stealing it. I mean, you can do all sorts of things; you can even attribute it, but if you post a blog on your blog, in toto, you've infringed it. The same EXACT thing is true with a photo. Yes, people share them, but they share the links TO the photo, on the originator's page--not just lift the image and post it.
If you want to "share" images that you happen to stumble across on a Google search, you follow the image back to its origin, and post a link TO it. You don't copy it and then post it as if it's yours. It isn't. When you say this:
Quote:
|
And hey, I'm a writer. I don't want people pirating my stuff. But I actually wouldn't mind them spreading it around a bit to increase my exposure.
|
(
italic emphasis added)
...you're thinking of a solitary photo as something akin to 10 paragraphs from your 100K-word book. But it isn't like that; a photo is a complete thing, an entire entity, just as is your book. You don't want your entire novel picked up and shared freely around the internet, right? Well, to the photographer, that photo may be a source of income, too. You can't know, unless you research the rights, I'm sorry to say. It's woefully easy to make off with images on the Net, and sadly, everyone does it. Hell, even I've inadvertently reposted some Ihascheezburger funnies, from time to time (but at least, thank heavens, those have the copyright ON them).
It's simple: post the link TO the image, not the image itself, and make sure you are allowed to before you do so.
(hell, I'm still tracking down a particular image I'm dying to use in a video. Even searching with Tineye. {sigh}. As the Stones said, "you can't always get what you want.")
OR, if you don't want to do that, limit yourself to CC searches (and be sure you check THOSE licenses, too--most are NOT allowed for commercial use, which, if you're posting them to call attention to you, your blog, all in connection with your BOOK, is still, arguably, commercial use.)
Hitch