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| Yes, I took this photo myself. |
These days I take my own photos, or work with photographers and use theirs. For stories on Glam Adelaide, if those first two options don't work, we are generally supplied images by PR agencies or directly from the person/company (when we're writing about something they've done).
Enter the blog.
Every man and his dog has a blog these days (check this out for proof) and there are some incredible ones out there - but what frustrates me is when people make themselves look fabulous while ripping off someone else's hard work.
Are you allowed to use any photo you find on the web and publish it on your blog?
I was under the impression you couldn't do that, and we drill that message in to our interns at Glam.
But every day, I see example after example of people posting all sorts of great images on their own blog, without credit to the site where it was pinched from, or credit to the photographer.
Is this acceptable now? Have I missed the boat?
Photographers, what do you have to say about this? Am I being old school by only publishing images I know we're allowed to use? Is the internet a free-for-all now? Can we just take whatever we want?
Why do I feel like the only person who is playing by the rules? Are there others out there like me?
At least with the launch of Pinterest, photos are linked back to their website of origin - but again, what happens when the origin is someone's blog rather than the photographer or company that originally commissioned the shot.
Just some food for thought.
4 comments:
As a photographer, the assumption by a large proportion of bloggers, tublr users, facebook users and such that photos when posted on the web are a 'free for all' becomes a constant battle to fight, and a time consuming one.
Some of us have no issue with others reposting our work, as long as full credits are given along with the image, with links back to the team pages, however when people do so without consideration to us and our copyright ownership, it is annoying, shows a complete lack of respect, and makes us report them for breach of copyright .. or worse.
This kind of lack of respect, combined with the current belief that we all want to work for peanuts, tends to get frustrating, and means, for me at least, I only spend time on those who deserve it, and respect what we (as creatives and business owners) do.
In the end, any photograph I take is copyright to me, and if people wish to use it in a commercial sense, I will charge them for it. Anyone who doesn't clearly doesnt wish to live well into retirement ;)
My $0.02 anyhow ;)
b
ps ... thanks for being one of the rare ones who cares enough to respect us :)
Totally agree! Your own photos, even if they aren't 100% make more of a statement than a stolen Google one! We've been doing our own photos for a while now and our readers love them!
I agree Kelly! We have been doing our own photos for our blog tyntedlily.com for some time. We actually gained more readers by doing our own, much more personal and representative of our brand! Even though some are really silly!
It only takes a few minutes a week and it saves stealing off google.
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