Ebay and protecting people infringing copyright - my story

[Kirk Gittings]

If you consider having something posted on the web as being published, you now have literally millions of amateur photographers being published in ways that was simply not possible before the internet. The vast majority of these people are happy just seeing their work in a public venue and pay little or no attention to copyright issues. This has been a gold mine to intellectual property thieves and turned the forces for copyright protection into a strident minority. In this environment it only makes sense like Don to get more rigid on these issues or die professionally. I am with him on this.

[patrickjames]

I am with Don, Kirk and K-25 with all of this.

Copyright is something that was set up to protect the created work for enough time that the creator had a opportunity to benefit from his creation. What people don't understand is without a benefit, there will be no creation, or creation will be severely limited.

Does anyone honestly believe that no one deserves the benefit of their labor? How stupid can you be?

If you are one of the people that states "get over it" maybe you should let a photographer stay at your house, that you paid for with your labor, and eat your food, that you paid for with your labor, and drive your car, that you paid for with your labor. You can get over that, can't you? Imagine if you showed up for work for a week and at the end of the week they didn't give you a paycheck, but just said "get over it!"

Stupid. And I don't use that work lightly.

[Kodachrome25]

And the attitudes just get worse and worse....

As per Yahoo CEO Marisa Mayer today:

"There's no such thing as Flickr Pro because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there's no such thing, really, as professional photographers when there's everything that's professional photographers. Certainly there's varying levels of skills but we didn't want to have a Flickr Pro anymore. We wanted everyone to have professional quality photo space and sharing." - Marissa Mayer, May 2013

I still feel that due to the adjustments I have made things look bright in my career. But wow, it gets uglier by the minute out there, eh?

[Kirk Gittings]

Is her grammar really that bad? I guess CEOs aren't what they used to be either.

[bdkphoto]

Is her grammar really that bad? I guess CEOs aren't what they used to be either.

lol

[Kodachrome25]

I know I can be verbose and profoundly insistent that I am seeing things coming that perhaps others can not....and I know how that may come across. All I know is that when large sweeping changes to society happen not over generations or decades like we have been accustomed to but over the course of a few years, we are far more likely to miss key evidence that not all that will come of it will lay as solid a footing for the good prospects as we initially were lead to believe.

In other words, if you as an amateur photographer are OK with the risk of having your photographic property stolen because you don't earn a living with it, what you don't realize is that this will very likely have an effect on *your* ability to earn a living, regardless of what you do to derive income. We are far more connected, too much so actually, for this to not occur....you think you are safe so "Share" away..but you are not...nothing in this life is ever free, there is a price you will pay for it all.

I call this crisis borne of the internet "Social Climate Change". And like the ecological variety, there is evidence we can readily see, on the surface, but a lot of it we can not see because we are forever trying to mitigate any adverse effect in our life by using an approach of engaging in *Minimum Treatment*....what is the least we can get away with in terms of action to solve the problem instead of actually going past the present problem to see what the bigger picture could serve up.

The way things are going is not sustainable, there will be more crashes like the so called "Great Recession" because we view things in the short term. Short term business models, short term solutions for short term gains leading to a greater potential for long term damage.
So now we have more crashes on the way, only this time, they are not only going to be just financial or ecological crashes based on those climate changes, but social ones leading to "Social Great Depression"...

The internet...a big party of Free in which some of those in attendance are starting to feel the effects of a hangover...

A great interview of author Jaron Lanier in Salon that I stumbled across today that echoes a lot of what I have been witnessing:

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/12/jaro..._middle_class/

[Brian C. Miller]

A great interview of author Jaron Lanier in Salon that I stumbled across today that echoes a lot of what I have been witnessing:

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/12/jaro..._middle_class/

(From my perspective) That author is so full of BS it's pathetic. Yes, Kodak went down the tubes, but that didn't happen due to digital imaging and communication. They went downhill due to throwing out everything that wasn't purely film production, even though they knew that film usage would diminish. Fujifilm kept all of their innovations under the main corporate wing, film production is about 1% of their gross profits, and Fujifilm is doing fine.

Kodak and Instagram are compared, but that's such a ludicrous comparison, it's practically a Straw Man argument. Yes, the times they are a-changin', and a lot of other disruptive changes have happened without the Internet.

You might as well conclude that space aliens landed because your lawn has fertilizer burn.

[DKirk]

those who keep harping on 'why would you care, let them use it for free'...

Folk are welcome to use my images, as long as they don't mind me popping round their place and 'using their stuff for free' So that car, TV, Computer, anything not nailed down, they won't mind me listing as 99p no reserve on ebay then?

Somehow, I think they'd be none too pleased. So Good on you Don, stick it too them.

[Sevo]

(From my perspective) That author is so full of BS it's pathetic. Yes, Kodak went down the tubes, but that didn't happen due to digital imaging and communication. They went downhill due to throwing out everything that wasn't purely film production,

While they are holding on to film production, I rather suspect that that is due to the fact that they cannot sell that branch - at any rate not while they still have to fulfil long term film supply contracts to various boards and corporations. Essentially, they've thrown out everything except printer production - not because they had any significant success on a global scale at the latter, but because that is the only field in which their CEO has any past experience and competence...

[Joseph O'Neil]

I am with Don, Kirk and K-25 with all of this.

Copyright is something that was set up to protect the created work for enough time that the creator had a opportunity to benefit from his creation. What people don't understand is without a benefit, there will be no creation, or creation will be severely limited.

Does anyone honestly believe that no one deserves the benefit of their labor? How stupid can you be?

If you are one of the people that states "get over it" maybe you should let a photographer stay at your house, that you paid for with your labor, and eat your food, that you paid for with your labor, and drive your car, that you paid for with your labor. You can get over that, can't you? Imagine if you showed up for work for a week and at the end of the week they didn't give you a paycheck, but just said "get over it!"

Stupid. And I don't use that work lightly.

+1 or +2 or +5 to all of the above. I agree with everyone above too - no matter who or whom you are. let them walk over you once, they will do it forever. Or as my dad always says "let them call you all the nasty names they can think of, but never, ever let somebody gt away with laughing at you." When they steal your work, that is what they do.

I just had somebody a couple days ago ask why I don't post my work on flickr, etc. I just told them too much time and work, but the reality is, I work to damned hard at this to just give it away for no good reason.

Now on the flip side of things, I do perform free photography for two different charities I am involved with, but that is different - I give my time and effort instead of money.

But I agree totally with Don on this one, do not ever let somebody get away with stealing your work. Not worth it
good luck