Over the past week I have been placing many of my photos from Phoenix Alternative on Facebook. Phoenix Alternative is a high school in Laval, Quebec where I taught for two years and helped organize the yearbook.
My classroom in Phoenix where I used to teach from 2004-2006. I implemented a mural painting program at the school and studied its impact for my M.A. research at McGill University.
For several weeks now I have been getting in touch with former students and I thought to upload the yearbook photos onto Facebook to share the memories. The student response has been tremendous and I have received many special messages and words of affection. Phoenix has been warming my heart indeed!
However, a member of staff that I used to work with has been less warm or affectionate. Today I noticed that a former colleague from Phoenix had taken one of my pictures of her on Facebook, downloaded it, and uploaded it again as her Facebook profile picture without my consent. To make matters worse she had added me to her restricted privacy settings so that I could not even see the many photos that I had tagged her in. To me this was a slap in the face and I promptly removed her as a friend.
People need to be aware of the ethics of copyright on Facebook and the internet. Just because a friend has taken a good picture of you it does not mean that you have the right to download it and use it for your own purpose. That is stealing.
Photography is hard work. It requires skill and care. Moreover good camera equipment is expensive. Nothing irritates me more that when someone uses my photography without my consent or without giving photo credit.
Most photographers are happy to share their work provided they are given photo credit. Giving a photographer photo credit is a sign of respect for their work and talent. It is a small thing to do but it means a lot. Moreover, it is the correct ethical action so please remember to credit the work of your friends and colleagues.
16 Comments
August 19, 2007 at 4:51 am
I think you’re overreacting. Your friend ’stole’ a picture of herself which she obviously likes and you want her to pay for it or something? She could have asked – that would have been polite – but you should respect her desire not to have photos of her plastered all over Facebook. Did you ask her permission?
Sorry to sound a little harsh but in this instance I don’t think copyright is the issue here.
August 19, 2007 at 5:09 am
p.s. How do you subscribe to comments? All the feeds on the right margin point to the whole blog. Am I missing something? Thanks!
August 19, 2007 at 5:52 am
Naruwan,
You are totally missing my point. The point is for photo credit.
-No where in my article do I mention money.
-All I ask for is credit.
-You also miss the point that she wants the photos on Facebook which is why she stole the photo to begin with and is using it as her profile picture.
-All of my photographic subjects have the right not to have their image displayed and I make this clear in writing at the beginning of my photographic albums.
August 19, 2007 at 5:57 am
Naruwan, here is the link to subscribe to the comment feed on Jo’s blog. I know about the sidebar issue, it’s local to WP.com, nothing we can do about it.
http://jorees.wordpress.com/comments/feed/
August 19, 2007 at 9:07 am
Good for you Jo! I applaud your decision to write about this issue. I can’t believe she took your photographs, blocked you as a friend and then reposted your work as her own. I only hope there’s a good explanation for this. Her behavior is completely unethical!
For Joanna’s readers, might I add, in addition to working with several magazines in Taiwan and Canada, Joanna has always done a lot of pro-bono work. She doesn’t get paid for this type of work.
I only know of one model who asked not to be featured on Joanna’s personal websites. Joanna complied with her wishes.
Jo shares her photography with her friends and family on Facebook and her blog. She only asks that she get the credit she deserves for her photography. To be blocked by someone after they’ve taken your work is a real slap in the face.
Good for you for standing up for yourself!
August 19, 2007 at 10:04 pm
I do see where you’re coming from Joanna, and I did say that she should have asked you.
At the same time, there are privacy issues here as well. If I were to hazard a guess as to why she blocked you on Facebook – not a nice thing to do, I agree – I’d say it was because she doesn’t want other people in control of images of her. I have to admit I would not like other people to upload and tag pictures of me without asking me for permission.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not siding with your photo-filcher! Just pointing out how some people feel awkward about having their images posted online by someone else. She went about it the wrong way by blocking you though.
August 20, 2007 at 1:40 am
Naruwan
I am very sensitive to privacy issues and always remove a photo if it offends a subject. In addition I always ask permission from the model before every photo shoot and only ever post flattering images of subjects.
This brings me back to the whole point of this article which is that the internet makes it too easy for people to rip-off photography and the importance of giving photo credit.
Any photographer amateur or professional will have their work used without their consent at some point. This is a very common occurrence and its not o.k.
However, photography can also be used to share memories, history, emotion, beauty, and culture. That is why I take pictures and why I run this blog.
June 27, 2008 at 1:26 pm
If you are concerned about protecting your copyrights, you should never upload your photos to Facebook. By uploading the photo, you gave away the (exclusive) copyrights to Facebook. If Facebook wants to sell, license, transfer copyright, or sublicense your work, they have that right.
Now, just because you lost exclusive rights to the photo, doesn’t mean that your former coworker had any right to photo… but Facebook has the right to give her the copyright. I doubt you can prove that Facebook did not do that (I’m sure she just downloaded it)… but this is entirely a U.S. copyright law issue.
The other issue at hand is the rights of individuals who are the subjects of photographs. In the Netherlands, they give more rights to the subjects of photographs. I tend to think that subjects should have more rights to use photographs and make copies for their personal use. I believe that should fall into the terms of “fair use” of copyright law.
A problem for photographers, authors, and musicians… or rather the copyright owner of any audio or visual work, is that in a digital world, perfect copies of an original can be made, and there is no difference between the two… and it is possible to make infinite copies. Actually… every time someone views your photograph on Facebook, a new copy has been made. The file on the server is not moved, but copied and sent over the Internet to the client machine. Your former coworker “downloaded” the image the moment she viewed it on her machine… she then “saved” the downloaded image for later use.
So… I don’t mean to be harsh, but if you want to protect the copyright and use of an image, NEVER make it publicly available online in a digital form. It’s really a case of having your cake and eating it too. You have to decide whether you want to maintain control over an image or if you want to share it with the online world.
These are just my opinions as a musician, photographer, graphic designer, videographer, software engineer, and B.S. of New Media Communication. I enjoy being a part of the conversation.
Below is an excerpt from the Facebook Terms of Service:
“By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.”
August 13, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Hey,
Fellow photographer researching Facebook’s right over your picture. They Reserve the right to use your content (including pictures) in connection with facebook. Now that mean’s they have the rights to the picture, luckily they don’t abuse this right. What has happened here though is your friend has clicked the “use this as your Profile picture” button, and then cropped it (it does this all online) and used it. I’d say she has full right, she wouldn’t have downloaded it, she just clicked an option on facebook
This happens to me all the time. Feel flattered, it’s a better feeling than offended
August 14, 2008 at 1:07 am
Hi Geoff,
Thank you for your comment. You are right in that once you put something on facebook it is no longer yours according to their copyright.
However, it the case of my former friend she was someone who I had discussed my photography and copyright with. In several conversations I had clearly communicated to her how upsetting it can be to have your images used without your permission or consent online. Overall, it does not bother me if someone wants to use a photograph. I just prefer to be asked and provided with a photo credit.
August 20, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Thanks for this article!! I’ve been having really similar problems and am super-frustrated…Glad to know I’m not alone.
December 4, 2008 at 11:24 pm
[...] Facebook and Copyright [...]
June 19, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Talk about Alice In Wonderland.
The photographer is complaining about the subject of a photo using that photo for her own noncommercial purposes?
Are you kidding me? If anyone is unethical, it is the photographer! Nowhere do I see where the photographer has a model’s release, so I question the right of the photographer to use this photo herself.
And even if the photographer did have a model’s release, that still would not prevent the subject of the photo also using it, unless the photographer had an explicit contract forbidding it, e.g. granting to the photographer an exclusive copyright, which doesn’t seem to be the case here.
The photographer here illustrates an observation I have made many times. There are a lot of delusional, mixed up people in the world. It is important to size up people quickly and stay away from nuts.
I think you owe the subject of the photo an apology for publishing her photo in a venue that was not contemplated when the photo was originally taken.
Then the photographer may want to talk to a therapist about her over-inflated ego and exaggerated self-importance.
You need a lot of help.
June 30, 2009 at 11:09 am
Mr. Morgan,
your concept of copyright is completely inaccurate. The creator of an image, no matter whether they are professional or not, retains the copyright. They alone have the right to do what they want with the photo, unless they sign those rights away. Just because I were to photograph someone and give/sell them a photo, that does not give them the right to do anything with it, other than display it. It is against the law for them to make copies or alter the image in any way, unless permission is given by the image creator.
Having a model release would make the situation better. There is nothing unethical about using a photo to promote yourself. What would be unethical, would be to use it KNOWING that the subject asked that you didn’t.
I recently found an image of mine being used to promote another business without my permission. I asked them to kindly refrain from using it or pay me for using it. I didn’t ask for credit (as the OP did) as I am in the business of selling images.
I do agree that “there are a lot of delusional, mixed up people in the world. It is important to size up people quickly and stay away from nuts.”
I don’t think the OP owes the “friend” an apology at all. Just my opinion.
July 6, 2009 at 11:49 am
As photographers we must protect our Copyright at all times but to the same degree we need to exercise commonsense in how we present our work and where we create our boundaries. No self respecting photographer should upload a single image to Facebook until such a time as they clarify or more important amend their Terms and Conditions. Imagine a situation where you offer exlcusivity to a client for a fixed period but this image is on Facebook and they decide to use it for their own advertising ? You will have then damaged your own professional reputation and opened yourself up to a potential lawsuit for breach of contract. Control over Copyright must always be maintained.
On another note model releases should be sought for every single image where you intend to make commercial use of the work. I wonder how on this front Facebook could use any image unless they have confirmed that a model release exists.
Your friends behaviour appears peculiar but maybe there is more to it ? Once however you upload the image you give up certain rights, once you tag it Facebook does indeed give the individual the right to use the photo. The site is technically built on the basis of communication and sharing.
Although I can see your frustration I think in this case it is more the straw that broke the camels back and you should be more concnerned about presenting any work on sights such as Facebook rather than worrying overtly about the personal, non commercial use of a photo by a former friend.
Good luck with your photography.
September 30, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Hello Joanna,
When I read your blog about your former friend using your photo, it reminded me somewhat about the struggle I had with 3 websites who will remain unnamed and their refusal to delete information that I had posted under my full name about 5 or 6 years ago.
The information I posted was not damning or insulting to any individual or any company, but as an author about to be published, I felt it necessary to remove any unwanted information from the internet that I had posted previously.
This was a lot tougher than what I had first thought! Without wanting to go into details about all this, 2 websites eventually complied with me after a lot of persuasion and the 3rd of these websites and I were very close to court action over the whole drama.
The experience I went through did get particularly nasty even though I was dealing with long established professional websites. The battle raged for just under 6 months with the third site, that was until I decided that I had lost enough patience and sleep over the whole thing. I bluffed that I had an appointment with a team of solicitors about another matter the next day and even gave them the name of a law firm, fake appointment time etc. I said if the information in question was not removed before the scheduled appointment that I saw it fit to add the greivance to my existing legal battle over another privacy matter.
When I got up the following morning to go to work, I checked the website in question and the information that we had been arguing over had vanished! I was so shocked at the fact that they had been able to erase it all along even though they kept fobbing me off with things like ‘we do not have an IT representative to handle your querie’ etc etc.
Even though your web experience concerns your photography, to me it is just the same thing… Websites using your stuff, purely because they can.
My advice is to be very careful over what you put on the internet. Be very careful especially if your name is attached to it. You just never know when it will come back and haunt you!
Anonymous! See I have learned my lesson!