Asserting Your Rights, Yes But… How?
A while ago, I discovered the WordPress Photo Dropper plug-in. Basically, what the plug-in does, it finds photos that have been uploaded to Flickr and are available for some limited uses. Many bloggers seem to use it now.
I thought it was a good idea to leave a comment on the photo page, thanking that person for the picture and telling them where I had used it. I got good responses from most members, and everything was fine.
Until a couple of days ago, when I received a dry comment from a third-party telling me that one photo had been stolen (from him), and to please delete it. I checked all the links provided by the third-party to support that claim and deleted both the photo (a nice one, I must say) from my blog and my comment from Flickr.
The owner of the photo is exercising his rights (I’ve decided that he’s he), and that’s absolutely right. Except that I had used that photo in good faith, and his tone didn’t encourage me to either congratulate him for a good picture, or even give me any desire to buy it.
I deleted everything, photo, comment on Flickr and comment to my blog, e-mail and all. I’m out of the loop now.
People who have their contents or products stolen are right to be mad about it. I’d probably be murderous if I found this happened to me. But reflecting upon it, and seeing how things are developing on the web, and everything in life is a lesson, I see this as a sadly missed opportunity for the owner. Given that the idea of that picture was really a good one, I think he could have handled this in a better way, at least as far as I’m concerned. Like: invited me to buy his photo, to look at his other photos, etc., still asserting his rights to them. Had he allowed me to side with him, I would have bought his photo. Instead, I feel as if I’ve been labeled as part of a gang of photo thieves.
A good lesson for the future, maybe…
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
May 18th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I agree whole heartedly. I hardly think what you are doing here is stealing. In fact I would have seen it as a huge plus in acknowledging the work. We are a strange lot we humans.
JimBobs last blog post..Agrifuels to compete with Oil Price and battle inflation
May 18th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Thanks Jim.
I realize now that my post may be open to misunderstanding.
The person who sent me the angry comment was a third-party, not the one who posted the photo to Flickr.
But this fact doesn’t change anything to the situation. I never meant to steal anything from anyone.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Dear Nadine… what a horrible experience!! Why is it all too hard for some to simply be polite? Think how much better off he’d/they’d be if they promoted the fact that theirs was the accurate source and here’s how you go about receiving even MORE wonderful images from them personally (rather than from the source that steals).
A missed opportunity for that party I do believe. But you did the right thing. xc
charlie robinsons last blog post..
May 20th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
In my opinion that person is wrong and “stolen” sounds incorrect; you acknowledged the source and this is fair use. Only, the guy was rude to you. He/she is the one to blame. Cheer up!
Ilarias last blog post..Today’s problem
May 20th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Nadine, I also had this happen to me. I used a beautiful photo from Flickr, and attributed the photographer in my blog post. I thought it was available under the Creative Commons license. The photographer left a comment on my blog telling me I had no right to use it and to delete it immediately. I was horrified as I would not knowingly steal anyone’s work. I deleted it immediately, and tracked down the photographer’s email and emailed him an apology. He responded back kindly but missed the opportunity to actually sell me on his services & establish a relationship even after I complimented him on his work. Your post offers good tips for handling these situations and we can all learn from your experience.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Karen, I’m sorry this happened to you too.
I would have apologized if I had in any way breached any rule. But this is not the case: To be on the safe side, I specifically set up the Photo Dropper plug-in to show me photos with the highest possible level of permission, i.e. commercial, even though I don’t monetize my blog. I assume the Flickr member should have apologized, and may have done so. I see that he/she has withdrawn the offending photo from his/her photostream.