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Just a gentle reminder on how to use my pictures.
Copyright
"Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the law of a jurisdiction to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work." (From: Wikipedia)
Or, in Dutch:
Auteursrecht (ook bekend als copyright) is het recht van de maker of een eventuele rechtverkrijgende van een werk van literatuur, wetenschap of kunst om te bepalen hoe, waar en wanneer zijn werk wordt openbaar gemaakt of verveelvoudigd. Het auteursrecht ontstaat van rechtswege. Men hoeft niets te deponeren of te registreren. (From: Wikipedia)
That means: If I take a picture, create an artwork or write a book, I am the one who gets to decide who can copy and distribute the work. I made it, so I've got copyright. I can file a lawsuit against anyone who decides they don't have to take care with my work. And win it.
Portrait Rights
In the Netherlands, we also know a law on protecting one's portrait. It allows a person depicted in a portrait or picture to object to publishing the image.
"Het portretrecht is een beperking van het auteursrecht. Het geeft geportretteerde personen het recht zich te verzetten tegen publicatie van hun portret." (From: Wikipedia)
As a photographer, you can also choose to waive (a part) of these rights. I like Open Source and Creative Commons, so I usually give all my photo's a Creative Commons license. An Attribution, Non-commercial, no-derivatives license to be exact.
That means: you are free to share the work, as long as you don't alter it in any way and tell people I was the one who made it. Unless you want to use it commercially, because Commercial use is not allowed.
I find that most larpers I photograph are not so worried about having their pictures taken and shared. It's a comfortable position to be in as a photographer as well. People trust you to take pictures and shift through them so the best are published and the blurry worst aren't. They trust you to take care with the images so they can't be used for other means.
And this one of the reasons I dislike Photobucket and like Flickr.
Photobucket takes your images and takes your rights:
"By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the Photobucket Services, you hereby grant to Photobucket and other users a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content marked "private" will not be distributed outside the Photobucket Services." (From: The Photobucket Terms of Use, emphasis mine)
Flickr allows you to choose what kind of license your images will have. The default setting is "all rights reserved".
The reason I'm blogging about this? It's because I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off at Facebook and I'm pissed off at Photobucket and all those other sites who think that portraits and photographs are theirs just because their Terms of Use tell you they are. You see, Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilites" tells me this:
"You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:
1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it." (emphasis mine)
And I read on Slashdot today that Facebook now has the means to add any of your profile pictures to adds on other people's profiles. It's linked to Facebook Places, and if you 'check in' to your local Starbucks, Facebook will display a Starbuck's add with your profile photo on your friend's Facebook pages. "Hey look!" they will say, "Your friend likes us too!"
(Original article on Slashdot, here)
And I know for a fact that some people use my photographs in their Facebook.
And they can't.
'They can't?' you might ask me? That's right. They can't. Not because I am stopping them! I've got Creative Commons License on my images.
If I've taken a picture of you, you have a right to that portrait, because it's your face on it - That's Portrait right. But by uploading it to Facebook, you say to Facebook that it's YOUR image. That YOU own it. And you don't.
But because you've uploaded it to Facebook, you've just given away your rights to the image, and mine, because of their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. But you can't give my rights away, because they're not yours to give away in the first place!
It would be like me uploading your book's contents to Facebook and Facebook selling your book, because I've uploaded it. Or me uploading your artwork to Facebook and Facebook selling it to a museum. Facebook can do anything it bloody well wants with the image, because you've just handed it to them.
And that's my image! I took that photo! I spend a thousand euro's on that bloody camera! I kneeled in the dirt for that picture! Can you see how this pisses me off?!
*breathes deeply*
Alright, there's no use ranting about this. Facebook is, as a social experiment, interesting to observe from the side lines, and there's not a lot I can do to change it.
What I can and will do is the following:
1) Ask anyone who is using photographs of mine on their Facebook, to please take it down.
2) Add a watermark to all of my images I publish in the future.
Please, people. This is a big deal. It is not a "why do you worry about this" subject. It's your face they are using for their profit. They are trampling your rights, and you won't see a dime in return.
Please take down any of my images you've got on Facebook. If you do, I'll get you a print of that image to hang on your wall in your home instead as a thank you.
Just e-mail me at starz [a] janestarz [.] com if you want a print.
Copyright
"Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the law of a jurisdiction to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work." (From: Wikipedia)
Or, in Dutch:
Auteursrecht (ook bekend als copyright) is het recht van de maker of een eventuele rechtverkrijgende van een werk van literatuur, wetenschap of kunst om te bepalen hoe, waar en wanneer zijn werk wordt openbaar gemaakt of verveelvoudigd. Het auteursrecht ontstaat van rechtswege. Men hoeft niets te deponeren of te registreren. (From: Wikipedia)
That means: If I take a picture, create an artwork or write a book, I am the one who gets to decide who can copy and distribute the work. I made it, so I've got copyright. I can file a lawsuit against anyone who decides they don't have to take care with my work. And win it.
Portrait Rights
In the Netherlands, we also know a law on protecting one's portrait. It allows a person depicted in a portrait or picture to object to publishing the image.
"Het portretrecht is een beperking van het auteursrecht. Het geeft geportretteerde personen het recht zich te verzetten tegen publicatie van hun portret." (From: Wikipedia)
As a photographer, you can also choose to waive (a part) of these rights. I like Open Source and Creative Commons, so I usually give all my photo's a Creative Commons license. An Attribution, Non-commercial, no-derivatives license to be exact.
That means: you are free to share the work, as long as you don't alter it in any way and tell people I was the one who made it. Unless you want to use it commercially, because Commercial use is not allowed.
I find that most larpers I photograph are not so worried about having their pictures taken and shared. It's a comfortable position to be in as a photographer as well. People trust you to take pictures and shift through them so the best are published and the blurry worst aren't. They trust you to take care with the images so they can't be used for other means.
And this one of the reasons I dislike Photobucket and like Flickr.
Photobucket takes your images and takes your rights:
"By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the Photobucket Services, you hereby grant to Photobucket and other users a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content marked "private" will not be distributed outside the Photobucket Services." (From: The Photobucket Terms of Use, emphasis mine)
Flickr allows you to choose what kind of license your images will have. The default setting is "all rights reserved".
The reason I'm blogging about this? It's because I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off at Facebook and I'm pissed off at Photobucket and all those other sites who think that portraits and photographs are theirs just because their Terms of Use tell you they are. You see, Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilites" tells me this:
"You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:
1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it." (emphasis mine)
And I read on Slashdot today that Facebook now has the means to add any of your profile pictures to adds on other people's profiles. It's linked to Facebook Places, and if you 'check in' to your local Starbucks, Facebook will display a Starbuck's add with your profile photo on your friend's Facebook pages. "Hey look!" they will say, "Your friend likes us too!"
(Original article on Slashdot, here)
And I know for a fact that some people use my photographs in their Facebook.
And they can't.
'They can't?' you might ask me? That's right. They can't. Not because I am stopping them! I've got Creative Commons License on my images.
If I've taken a picture of you, you have a right to that portrait, because it's your face on it - That's Portrait right. But by uploading it to Facebook, you say to Facebook that it's YOUR image. That YOU own it. And you don't.
But because you've uploaded it to Facebook, you've just given away your rights to the image, and mine, because of their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. But you can't give my rights away, because they're not yours to give away in the first place!
It would be like me uploading your book's contents to Facebook and Facebook selling your book, because I've uploaded it. Or me uploading your artwork to Facebook and Facebook selling it to a museum. Facebook can do anything it bloody well wants with the image, because you've just handed it to them.
And that's my image! I took that photo! I spend a thousand euro's on that bloody camera! I kneeled in the dirt for that picture! Can you see how this pisses me off?!
*breathes deeply*
Alright, there's no use ranting about this. Facebook is, as a social experiment, interesting to observe from the side lines, and there's not a lot I can do to change it.
What I can and will do is the following:
1) Ask anyone who is using photographs of mine on their Facebook, to please take it down.
2) Add a watermark to all of my images I publish in the future.
Please, people. This is a big deal. It is not a "why do you worry about this" subject. It's your face they are using for their profit. They are trampling your rights, and you won't see a dime in return.
Please take down any of my images you've got on Facebook. If you do, I'll get you a print of that image to hang on your wall in your home instead as a thank you.
Just e-mail me at starz [a] janestarz [.] com if you want a print.
