The World of Orcaz: The World From My Lenz

The issue about copyright were brought up by a photographer in a group discussion in flickr.

His photo were taken by web site owned by a hospital. He then start a topic to ask from others about their opinion, and what he should do.

Then last week, an article in NYT (NY times) put more oil to the fire.


here what she says:

“And if you’re wondering about copyright issues (after all, these aren’t my photos), the photos are being used by me for my own, private, noncommercial use. I’m not selling these things and not charging admission to my apartment, so I think I’m in the clear.

Obviously, photographers and others may feel quite differently about this, but it’s a thorny issue: If printing out an image on Flickr isn’t ok, what about Wi-Fi picture frames that stream images from Flickr and display them in your living room? What about Tivoing an episode of Lost and watching it later with friends? (I’ll be following up this post with another post, chock full of answers from legal experts, in the coming days.)

Of all the artwork I have in my studio apartment (there isn’t a bare wall in the house), my Flickr finds get the most attention. Best of all, they were practically free! I use a Kodak ESP7 AIO printer to ink my finds on various sizes of photo paper and frame them in inexpensive frames found at Urban Outfitters or Ikea. The only thing I pay for is ink, paper and frames — peanuts, in my opinion.”

Some of the photographer don't agree with the writer. If you took other's work without permission, it is stealing and "Stealing is stealing".

Yes, stealing is stealing.

For me, it is okay because it is not for commercial use. But this article promote people to take photo that they like from flickr. Thats mean, more people will do what the writer did. Imagine, if a photo can be sold at the price of 50 cent (just for example, I don't know what the price). Before the article is writen, just a few people took a photo from a photographer's photostream, it will cost only a few dolars. And now, the article is writen, people who read the article might think "Oh, this is a great idea" and they begin searching in flickr. This will make the photographers to loss a lot of dolars.

But think again. Flickr is a sharing site. People can freely view and they can print it out. Flickr also aware about this matter and require the uploader to state about the copyright (is it "all copyright reserved" or "creative commons" or don't have any copyright at all) and there is also view in all sizes option (whether you give permission to other people to view in bigger size or not).

You also can put your watermark to prevent people from stealing your picture.

There are many methods to prevent from your photos to be stolen. And if you don't want your photos to be stolen from flickr without applying the methods I stated above, then don't put your photos on the net. Open a gallery or exhibition. I'm sure your photos will not be stolen.