I don't know whether you've seen it or remember it, but long story short - I photographed some skater kids and was concerned later if I'm allowed to send them the photos (for the mere fact that they were underage). I have just started with the whole photography thing and up until that day I never even thought about that kind of stuff. They were just skaters - 10 or 11 year old kids with a skate and nice manners. I did my research and found the solution for the question that was bothering me, and I did the right thing.
But my point is, I was asked by one of the boys to send him the shots because he has a skater blog and wanted to post the pictures.
And then he said something that surprised me.
"Make sure you send us your name, lady (lady?! :O ), so that we can give you credit."
And I'm like, "Credit?"
"Yeah, credit, for the photo, you know."
I knew what he meant, but...
..."so that we can give you credit"?
That's what an 11-year old said to me.
An eleven year old.
ELEVEN (11) (or ten, or perhaps twelve, it doesn't matter. A kid).
So, the kid knows that it's nice to give credit when you use someone's photo. That kid knew. A lot of my friends know that. Lots of other people know that. It feels like common sense, right?
And yet, there I am yesterday browsing through Instagram and finding my own photograph in someone else's gallery. Come on! No credit, no name, no "repost". And not a kid, an older guy.
I know it's not a big deal - it's just one photograph. Whoever put's their content online knows that this can happen. But seriously, don't you have any doubts about whether that's right? Is there any moral and social obligation in your mind that might trigger the "maybe I should put an artist's name underneath it" alarm? No, I guess people don't have those alarms.
Maybe he didn't know? Or he didn't think it was a big deal. Or maybe I'm too f* nice sometimes. He should have known better. We have a word for him in Croatian - magarac.
And even though it's flattering that someone really liked my photo, I'd still prefer that they don't just post it under their name. It's actually a steal. By all means, if you like my photo - you're free to reshare it - as long as you say who's photo it is.
So I asked the certain individual to either remove it or to put my name underneath it (I mean, there is my watermark on the photo right there!), but he never replied. And what can you do? Except to report the post as a spam, or to fill in the copyright violation form and submit it to Instagram.
I did both.
If everything else fails, I have snapshots of the individual so I can publicly expose him. But that's not gonna help either.
I know there's a lot of people struggling with the same problem out there. And I'm not a professional photographer, but it still doesn't feel right. Especially on a platform like Instagram, who's whole purpose is to show your visual arts, photographs and videos. It makes it even worse, actually, because it diminishes the whole value of Instagram idea.
It just happened so, that I really like that photograph because it took me some time and effort to make it the way it looks (the photo underneath). It's a matter of principles. It's collective common sense and proper conduct that everybody needs to lean forward to, but I guess that's Utopia.
So, be nice, work hard, play hard and stay fair. That's my thought of the day today.
XoXo
No comments:
Post a Comment