Photo from naixn on Flickr Creative Commons
Original Post: Drew Fulton
Working as a professional photographer, copyright is often at the forefront of my mind and often involved with my daily tasks. My perspective on copyright has almost always come as the copyright holder, trying to figure out ways to prevent others from using my images without compensation. After all, I do make my living through the creation and publication of my photographs. This is a huge issue in the photographic world these days and something that people struggle with on a daily basis. Image theft is rampant and the internet only makes it easier.
The thing about violating copyright that drives me nuts is that people do it without a second thought because most people know that they won’t get caught, or it isn’t worth the time of the copyright holder to prosecute the offender. After all, there isn’t a police force out there that protects copyright holders (unless you are dealing with major movie/music/product piracy and then it is the FBI). For the most part, someone like me would have to hire a lawyer, get a cease and desist order written, and then send it to the offender. This is not a cheap endeavor and likely won’t result in any returns. The reality is, if that person had just asked, they might have been given permission. Instead, the culture is “better to ask for forgiveness than permission” and it drives me crazy.
One of the interesting things I found by watching these videos as they were primarily from the perspective of the user rather than the creator. What makes it even more interesting is that a number of those people (primarily the documentary folks) are using the copyrighted material to create commercial products (documentaries) that they then copyright. I find that when these discussions come up people want to use the work created by other people but they don’t want other people to use their work.
For a couple decades now, Internet users have had the expectation of getting things for free but this is a false premise. We can see this transformation coming in the world of journalism where places like the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have finally started charging subscription fees for the content they provide online. After all, people used to pay for the print version and they weren’t paying to simply have the physical newspaper in their hands, they were paying for the content. Because the internet isn’t a physical object, people think it doesn’t have costs associated with it, but that is far form the truth. The content still needs to be produced regardless of whether it is printed on your screen or printed on newsprint. The value is the content and until we start to accurately assess this value, it is going to be difficult to regulate copyright violation in this new digital world. I think we are headed that way, but we aren’t there yet.
My Comment:
I was really excited to read your blog after watching all of these videos because you deal with this for a living. It was very interesting to me that almost everything that we watched was geared more towards people that want to use copyrighted material, especially since whole topics were on fair use and Creative Commons. My husband is always complaining that there is no original music anymore because they all just copy each other. While I get frustrated that copyright is sometimes "too strict" I agree that original work should be the ultimate goal. You also brought up the fact that a lot of people know that they are using copyrighted material and yet they simply don't care or hesitate. I just had this conversation with my students regarding the re-use of music. They blatantly stated that nobody is going to sue them and that there are bigger fish to fry. While I want them to have creativity, I also want them to find some inspiration that is not based on other people's brilliant ideas. I think that this two-sided extremist battle is far from over and that if anything it is going to get worse before it will get better. As a photographer, do you use Creative Commons to post your work? Just curious...
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