Re: Hatin on Flickr
Good point, I`ve taken mine down.
Frank,
Does their user agreement give them a license to use your photos after they are taken down?
YouTube established theft as a way to become a billionaire - at least Flickr lets you know what they are up to, even if no one reads the agreement and thinks about its implication. But I am with you, this culture of giving up rights to megacorporations is pretty disturbing.
This seems to be a part of a general lack of interest in privacy. When I teach national security law, the students do not care very much about governmental invasions of their privacy. They think that as long as I am not doing something illegal, why should I care. As an old foggie who remembers operation CHAOS and CONINTELPRO - the efforts to break up the civil rights movement and campus organizations - I am a little more concerned about Mr. Bush, or even Mr. Obama, listening to my phone calls and and putting CCTV cameras in very square inch of public space.
Ed Richards
http://www.epr-art.com
So what are we supposed to use then? SmugMug? Zenfolio? Photoshelter? Whom?
Ed, don't lose faith in everyone. My privacy is very important to me...IDs, CCTV, etc. really scares the crap out of me.
Now where did I put that 23 page PDF on why "why should you care if you aren't doing anything illegal" is a fallacy?
I pulled all of my pictures off of Facebook because of this, and I guess I will have to pull them off of Flickr, too.
Actually I have photos posted on MySpace and Facebook because I find those sites valuable for networking and I see their possible use of my images as less of an issue than a photo-orientated site like Flickr, which is now an important force in the photo industry. But you're right, if I was rigid and idealistic I should pull them off the other sites too. But right now I find the client, photo subject, and friends networking of MySpace and Facebook too important to give up. I make money from it! Of course a few people have made money selling stock from Flickr and there are a fair number of professionals on it for the portfolio exposure, so it's a question you have to ask yourself.
The alternative is to use your own server, or to use a service that respects your rights, such as PhotoShelter (which has it's other issues). None of which have the broad audience of Flickr (but which might deliver better search engine results...)
Or post pictures to sites such as this one, which make no claims to our images.
I do use my own server, but that is just for the site. Flickr garners extra and different exposure.
One has to take the view that the user agreement is a contract. If you don't like the terms, don't sign it. I much prefer to do business with a company like flickr, which at least pays some attention to intellectual property issues (such as providing creative commons licensing options) than one like Facebook, which can strip-mine your content and use it for *any* purpose. That said, the primary purpose of Flickr is to be a social site- for me, photography is a social than an economic activity, and the value I've received from sharing my photos far exceeds the perceived cost to me if, by some remote chance, Yahoo were to decide that a picture of my cat might somehow sell something to someone. If selling pictures of pretty girls, sunsets and kittens was what I did to feed my family, however, I might think differently.
FaceBook have some fairly extreme wording in their user agreement, which is why there is only one of my commercial images there. Obviously these portals and corporations want some benefit of providing an essentially free service. The alternative is the $3.95 a month (MySite.com hosting) and up web hosting companies, which while not free is quite affordable for most individuals. Also, I think a Flickr account for your images is fine for amateurs, but a very poor reflection upon professionals, but that's just my opinion.
Ciao!
Gordon Moat Photography
Luckily friends own a webhosting business so I get free space.
i only post digital captures of my prints , therefore bypassing such problems
it aint photography if it aint a print.
as far as im concerned people on flickr dont give a damn about there printing process
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