Unfair use - fantastic trip slide show
posted by Keith at 1:40 PMI guess that I am a little over sensitive about this...
Today I got an e-mail with the slide show "Fantastic Trip". It depicted several zooms in and out of the universe and had inspirational thoughts on each slide. The images and concept looked familiar, so I did a search and found where they came from:
http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/
On that site it says,
No images, graphics, software, scripts, or applets may be reproduced or used in
any manner without permission from the copyright holders.
I suppose that we could give the slide show creator the benefit of the doubt and assume that he got permission to use those images. It is possible, but I doubt it. If he did get permission, he would have given credit to the proper people, and he didn't.
A few days ago I got another e-mail with pictures of the eagle attacking the swan. It was the same one that I got before, that gave credit to the wrong photographer.
I have stopped forwarding that stuff unless I am completely sure that it is legitimate.
By the way, I was successful in getting a few of may stolen art slide shows removed, but I gave up on the rest.
Labels: slide show rip offs
3 Comments:
Thanks for this post. It was good to see you blogging again, even if the circumstances are not exactly happy.
I keep on saying that if we as artists release our stuff on the 'net, then chances are people will use it, often without our knowledge / permission. Posts like this are good because they go a small way to educating people "out there" about copy right / fair use issues. I do worry that posting on a blog like this one is like preaching to choir - but its a start.
My answer to the issue is to upload relatively small images and decorate them with clipart and a signature. It means that I'll recognise my stuff when I see it and goes some way to limiting the commercial value of the piece.
Copyright violations need to be fought. A good resource for information that is specific to photography, but also pertains to digital and other forms of art is Photo Attorney, http://www.photoattorney.com/.
Contests and some web sites such as Facebook are particularly ominous by their rights grabbing spelled out in their terms of service agreements.
You have to be careful not only of what you upload, but where you upload it.
Watermark, watermark, watermark, man. Or texture the heck out of it like a lot of the geofractal stuff I do. The texture won't do a whole lot to keep anyone from snagging them for a slide show (as if anyone has ever wanted any of my stUFf - only once and it was for cell phone pix) but it sure plays hell for anyone trying to up-size and print them. Looks REALLY bad. I've been a little lazy about marking my latest pix but, then again, they haven't been all that hot anyhow.
I use texture because I really like it a LOT and also sometimes to simulate what it looks like on rag/watercolor paper. The gnarly up-sized look was something I noticed later and I guess is a sort of extra added bonus.
As drop-dead pretty and fractal-ish as the stUFf you create is - and therefore desirable - I'm surprised you don't watermark. Though, I'll agree ahead of time that it DOES take a bit away from the viewing experience if it is too overt.
It really sux that folks rip others off on the 'net and watermarking certainly goes against the free vibe that the web and especially fractals have had since almost day-one but it is what it is, I reckon...
Rick
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