"Borrowed" images on blogs, what's your opinion?

~ManualFocusPhoto Aug 11, 2012 Student Photographer

Recently, a blogger was sued by a photographer for using their work without permission, and has since changed all the photos on her blog because of this [link]

This isn't exactly a new issue, and there are photographers who blogged about this, like this guy over here [link]

What's everyone's opinion on this?

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Devious Comments

=Annimouse Aug 22, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

By destroy, I mean writes all over it or adds horrendous filters to it!

=Annimouse Aug 22, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

I don't have a problem with people using my photos on blogs if they credit me and keep the photo as the original. I have even less of a problem with it if they ask me first.

What I detest is when someone takes one of my images and just uploads it to their site without any credit and/or destroys it!

~ManualFocusPhoto Aug 22, 2012 Student Photographer

That sounds fair enough. Problem is, most bloggers don't even bother crediting people.

Thanks for your views

=Annimouse Aug 22, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

That is true.

I find alot of my work on blogs that don't credit me. Alot of them are blogs in another language. I do wonder if when someone takes my image and uses it on a blog, other bloggers find it and then steal the image from that blog, if that makes sense? So maybe some of them don't realise that I am the artist. It would be so much better if bloggers credited artists in the first instance. It would be even better if they asked permission! Alot of work goes into creating an image, whether it be a photograph, a drawing, or a piece of digital art and it really sucks that someone can come along and just take it without any regard for the hard work that has gone into making it.

~ManualFocusPhoto Aug 22, 2012 Student Photographer

Yeah, I completely understand you.
I don't think as many photographers would have such a problem with bloggers, if they simply had enough courteously to ask to use the photo, or at the very least, credit us photographers. It doesn't really take that much effort, and it'll be greatly appreciated.

*td365 Aug 19, 2012 Professional Photographer

My work is a part of me, and it's how I earn a living. I have had people take my work (whether photography, traditional art, or writing) and use it without crediting me in the past. Thankfully whenever I've contacted individuals about it, they either remove my work or credit me properly. But if push came to shove? Taking someone to court is absolutely the right thing to do.

~mcdj Aug 18, 2012

As a photographer, if I were that blogger, I'd have said "go ahead, sue me.". Show me a lawyer whose gonna touch that case. Show me the judge who will hear it. I'd love to hear how much money this desperate photographer was trying to extort from this lowly blogger. Probably something ridiculous like $500. For a jpeg on a blog? Get over yourself Ansel Adams. You don't want your low res jpegs used on a low traffic random blog? Then don't post your work online. Simple.

It's like saying, I throw confetti in the air for a living. But if you find one of the pieces of my confetti and try to show it to people, I want to get paid. Dude is a prick for doing anything beyond asking her to remove the photo.

~ManualFocusPhoto Aug 19, 2012 Student Photographer

Oh, how nice, when a photographer doesn't want his work stolen, start insulting his skill...grow up.

It's about the principle. And "that blogger" has sued others for using her work, so she should know better.

Saying if you don't want your work stolen then don't post it online is like saying if you don't want to get mugged don't get out of the house, works nice in theory, but the world doesn't exactly work like that.
And no, it's nothing like your confetti simile, since you didn't make the confetti.

Lots of lawyers will take this case, it's a typical copyright case, and any half decent lawyer can win it, maybe you just don't know any.

~mcdj Aug 19, 2012

I know plenty of good lawyers who will take any case that can help pay their kid's dental bills. A case involving a low profile blogger who uses a photo to illustrate a random blog post is not one of those cases. What that has to do with "growing up" is beyond me. That's just real life, of which I have spent the majority of 44 years in NYC as a working photographer and retoucher. I think I might be grown up enough to talk about the reality of this situation.

And where exactly did I insult the photographer's skill? I said it was a low res jpeg, not a bad photo. And I called the guy Ansel Adams because he is not, simply put. If he were on par with Ansel Adams, he'd be far too busy making actual money from his photos to be chasing down bloggers for $1000.

People who litigate for the slightest breach of their precious rights, no matter how damage-less their claims are, are clogging our courts and turning everyone into a greedy self righteous idiot. Period.

~ManualFocusPhoto Aug 20, 2012 Student Photographer

You do know it's about the principle, right? first it's low res on blogs, next it'll be something bigger. What's wrong with wanting control over your own work?
Bloggers should be the last people to talk btw, since they're the first to jump on a law suit.

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