Not everything on the internet is free for the taking.

By curiousillusion ( January 21, 2010 at 12:20 pm) · Filed under photography, social networks, , ,

Aka, “stop stealing pictures!”  Or… “how do I know if I’ve stolen a picture?”

I love flickr. I’ve learned a lot about photography there and I’ve met so many wonderful people as a result.  But the one problem I keep coming across is this: when you put your pictures up on a picture sharing website, people tend to think that since the pictures are “shared”, that means they can use your pictures however they want.  And that’s not true at all.   Sharing, in this sense, means I am letting other people see a picture I have created.  I am not putting a picture on a website for others to take it.

Some of you may remember my beloved Wall-E picture (with flag) that I posted the other day.  I adored the expression in his eyes, it took me nearly 100 takes to capture it but I was proud of it, possibly more proud of it than any other photo I’ve taken to date.  Unfortunately, someone else loved it enough to upload it to their tumblr, without asking for permission or giving me credit.  And that’s really crappy.  [Btw, I have to thank @mattstratton and @phampants for noticing my stolen picture, letting me know and helping me out in general.]

I know a lot of people may be guilty of this: they see a picture they like, right click, save as… bam, they have a picture to upload wherever they want.  Fantastic… but what about the person that the picture BELONGS to?  And yes, that picture belongs to me, I took it, my pictures are protected by copyright.  If you save the picture, then upload it to another site… you stole that picture.  Congratulations, you’re a thief.

That sounds really harsh but it’s really true.  Most pictures up on flickr, unless otherwise indicated, are All Rights Reserved. Which, to quote the law (courtesy of wikipedia), means “the holder of a copyright reserves the sole right to publish a work, and is entitled to take legal action against infringement.”  Aka if it’s my picture, I’m the only one allowed to do anything with it and if you decide to use it without asking (for any reason at all, even if you’re not making money off it), you’ve broken the law.. and I’m allowed to take legal action against you.  Make sense?

SO… long story short… If you’re a person trying to post a picture that you like (and doesn’t belong to you) on facebook, tumblr, flickr, your blog, WHEREVER… #1, ask for permission and #2, give credit to the photographer (include the photographer’s name near the picture) and link back to the site where you found the original picture.  [If you don't give credit to the photographer, that implies that YOU took the picture.  A quick little "by curiousillusion" (for example, with a link to the original picture) helps give a hard-working photographer due credit.]

It really doesn’t take that much time to do.  And it makes the world a better place. :)

Oh and btw, I know that most people that are reading this are photographers that already know all about this sort of thing.  But please, let’s spread the word… hopefully we can educate people so that our pictures can remain theft-free.

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  • Hi Ari,

    That does suck that someone didn't give you credit for your picture. That being said, I find it so much easier to just put a creative commons license on my pictures, with the expectation/hope that people Will share them ... and hopefully attribute. And if they don't, that's ok too ... what comes around goes around.

    If you're taking these pictures with the idea of selling them, then to be perfectly honest, they probably shouldn't be on flickr anyway (even with ARR copyright). But if you take pictures for pleasure, why not have as many people as possible see your work? (even if they don't always know it was yours). It justs seems like it adds an unnecessary layer of stress to something that is suppose to be FuN!

    lol, I wish more people would "steal" my pictures ... but then again, I'm not nearly as talented a photographer as you ;-)
  • You are so right. I must admit that I have been guilty of right click save for many years... and it took some growing up and maturing to realize that I should take that extra step to cite the photo if I want to use it. You are absolutely right :) Sorry about the pic-thief!
  • Yeah that must be annoying people stealing your pics, you could make it so you cannot view larger, so It cannot be used for commercial purposes. I should probably do this 2 actually.
  • That is NOT cool!
    Have you tried watermarking or adding a copyright to your photos? If you use lightroom, you can add it in about 30 seconds when you export. Then all your pics will say curious illusion in the lower left hand corner. It isn't a guarantee against theft, but it's one more protection to think about.
    Oh and I tried to comment using disqus and it wouldn't let me! So strange.
  • Milo
    It is frustrating, I know. I try to take it as a compliment.

    It is the nature of the Intertoobs. People are going to scrape photos, blog posts, documents, videos...and whatever else you spent your time creating. If you find unauthorized use of your content, ask them to take it down, report them or whatever makes you feel better. But understand you cannot stop it; it will continue to happen, for as long as you post your content on the Interweb. Sorry.
  • That really sucks, Ari. I'm sorry. That Wall-E picture is wonderful, and no one else should take credit for your stuff.

    I know I've used images from google searches before, and have forgotten to even go to the site it came from, let alone give credit to anyone. :( Haven't done it recently, but I've still done it.
  • Jasmine
    I posted this on your community page. But if you have a tumblr, the person should have a link back. So, when someone clicks on your picture it should go to your flickr page. You should check if it does that. That's tumblr way of giving credit.
  • Hey... yeah but the thing is I DON'T have a tumblr page. So there was no way for the person to link back... well, they could have had they included the URL and my name but he chose not to.
  • TotallyHeather
    Someone stole my pictures once. Like pictures of me. Who wants to pretend to be me?! People are crazy.
  • It's a double-edged sword Ari isn't it? Anytime you post your photos on Flickr or ANYWHERE on the internet for that matter, they can be stolen. That's the risk you take when you want to share your love for photography with other like-minded people. Except, not everyone shares your values or sense of integrity. Sorry that happened to you my friend.
  • ari_b
    I've heard a story about some family's Christmas photo being used for a ad campaign in Eastern Europe because the designer had found it on Flickr and decided that it was public domain. Its scary what can happen to your art . . .
  • Sorry to hear about your photo; thankfully that was taken care of promptly.
  • I'm just glad that I saw it and was like "Wait a minute!" Thankfully tumblr took it down, but what about the reblogs?
  • Ummm... I wish I could say I knew but I have no idea.  I really don't know how tumblr works at all.
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