It appears I have a big fan of my Japan photo diary. Big enough that nine of my photos have been incorporated into the site design for this fan’s blog. It’s fairly disconcerting to see your photos plastered all over someone else’s site, and frankly I’ve been a little stymied in exactly how I am to react to such a thing.
Naturally I’m flattered that according to “Chibi Maria” (a self-described 17-year old “short female Anime [etc.] freak in Ocean County, NJ”):
[My photos] are all done by the same fabulous photographer… If you want to see more of his work click the Hmmn… link in the right bar. I swear… THIS is art. I was just shocked that I never seen these pictures before, this guy is a FABULOUS photographer.
Who wouldn’t be happy at such praise? And you know, I’ve always thought I had a pretty liberal attitude about copyright, figuring that as long as someone wasn’t making any money then a picture here or a picture there was about the same as linking to my site.
That said, I have to admit it bothers the heck out of me to see my photos so unabashedly used (admittedly in what is a very flattering site design as well), without my consent being given. “Chibi Maria” writes in her blog that
I tried to contact him if it was all right if I used his pictures in my new design, but his feedback page didn’t work -_-*… So I gave him credit right in the design…
And true enough, there is some small type that says “design photos (c) http://www.easterwood.org/japan02/ (although it would have been nice if that was clickable). As to why my feedback page didn’t work for her, I can’t say (I just tested it and it works fine for me, as well as many other visitors to my site). At any rate, the feedback page (and this blog as well) has my email address prominently displayed. The most basic of effort would have yielded my email address to her, just a tiny fraction of the effort she went through to download my images and retool them for her site. And just a tiny fraction of the effort I had to go through to track down her email address (via WHOIS, and an unusable one at that).
In the end, I posted a comment to her blog, and you can read that yourselves and decide whether I’m being a hardass, or too nice a guy (I basically said I’d let bygones be bygones if she made the “(c)” notice clickable).
The issue has gotten me thinking more seriously about copyrights, not from a legal standpoint, but simply from a personal standpoint. I create these photos (or these words for that matter) and upload them for any old stranger to see, to link to, to download, and to even incorporate into their own personal web site design should they wish. I wonder if I don’t check my “rights” of ownership at the door everytime I hit the “upload” button on whatever part of me I’ve deigned to let the rest of the world look at. I don’t know, frankly. I’m not comfortable with the notion that my work is sacrosanct and therefore belongs to me and me only (again, displaying said work on the Web gives the lie to this concept). Yet I can’t deny that in some way I do feel like I’ve been violated (please excuse the melodramatic overtones of that word).
Further rumination is required. In the meantime, I would love to hear from others on this issue (please click on the “Add comments” link below).
UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this I received a considered and contrite email from Chibi Maria apologizing for the whole episode. I quote from her email (with permission):
As for your request, I immediately made the url in the image linkable so people will be able to click the entire image to view more of your fabulous photographs. I again sincerely apologize, I was careless and inconsiderate and I realize this now. I meant no disrespect, but I did harmful damage that I should of be more cognizant of. Above all, I appreciate your patience with me and you allowing me to showcase your works of art in my design. I can’t draw like others nor can I take photographs like you, so this is how I express myself and my feelings and I appreciate you allowing me to do so. […] thank you for your hard work and dedication [in taking the photos] and apologies for not properly recognizing you for this.
So a happy and satisfying conclusion to the actual episode. I’m still ruminating on the larger issue, and as John Waterman said in his wonderful comment on this post (click the link below), “The conflict between ‘freely given’ and ego is not an easy one to solve and it can ultimately only be resolved internally.”