Mike Butler wrote:
> Hello All,
>
Hi Mike! Long time no hear.
> A few days ago there was some talk about Flikr and other photo sharing sites
> that as I recall, was more centered around the user interface. I was just
> asked which sites do not try to take your copyright? Someone here mentioned
> Smugmug for ease of use, how does it fare for copyright issues?
>
I think you may have misheard what the issues are. As Marc has just
posted, Flikr does not take copyright ownership of posted.
<http://www.flickr.com/help/general/#147> That is also true of Smugmug
and Zoto. I think it is true of the other photo sharing sites, but
haven't checked.
> I seem to remember a recent lawsuit against Flikr for selling the photo of a
> young girl at a church function that was subsequently doctored and used to
> sell condoms or some such. I have heard similar issues with Snapfish, Kodak
> and others. What can we do short of setting up our own website?
>
The problem is not with the sites, but with those who abuse them by
copying images from their sites and using them for other, sometimes
commercial, purposes.
Setting up your own site only helps to the extent that potential image
thieves are less likely to see your images than if they are on a sharing
site. Even on those sharing sites that "protect" your image or apps that
help you set up a web site and have a protection option, it's not hard
to copy the images. I don't know about Macs, but Windoze makes it
possible to copy what's on the screen ( from the screen image buffer?)
without reference to the underlying code that created it. I don't know
of any way to trap that function from outside the operating system. And,
of course, firewalls and anti-virus programs won't let a remote site in
to trap it.
I suppose a very high value site might persuade a subscriber to download
software to display its images in a way that wouldn't allow copying.
You can see this from the sites of most pro photographers. They have
images so small, in order to deny copiers something usable, that they
are quite poor for evaluating the images for sale. Catch-22.
It is possible to embed copyright info in the images - and also possible
to remove it. It allows those who would like to contact you about rights
to do so, but doesn't stop those others....
Moose
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