Photos placed on Flickr

I just wanted to add that I have no problem with companies using photo contests to get ad material. My problem is that they don't want to pay for them.

breal101 wrote in post #3996885
I just wanted to add that I have no problem with companies using photo contests to get ad material. My problem is that they don't want to pay for them.

Yeah...I've never entered any of those type contests for that very same reason.

3Turner wrote in post #3996183
I think that hosting sites need to make this type of stuff a little more clear and understanding for the regular person who does not understand this type of stuff. I bet that Flickr was conpensated by Virgin for the use of the photos in a very minor way which would have saved them some money as opposed any other photo outlet.

yeah considering that most flicker users or at least a really high number oof them are kids!

I've never been a fan of flickr as it seemed that they were always proposing that everyone subscribe to the Creative Commons concept. It works for some but it really is a difficult document to follow if you have ever tried to read it.

We are only starting to see the beginning of situations like this with the advent of the digital camera and photo sharing sites. It is time that all parties stood up and take responsibility for their parts in it.

Somehow, and I'm not exactly how you facilitate this, there has to be a way of alerting the viewer that the image you post is just for that, viewing. This isn't going to stop those that want to steal the image but when it starts to go through commercial pipelines such as the Virgin ad there has to be someone in that whole process that knows enough that there has to be a model release. If we, as photographers, are posting images of people in hopes that they get picked up then we need to be prepared to back it up with a release form.

There are ample images on the stock sites that are supported by releases that they shouldn't have to resort to sites like flickr to find the one they want. I have to think that maybe they are going to flickr because they don't want to deal with release issue and they hope that maybe no one will notice.

The whole process is screwed up in my opinion. We are only in the infancy of this and I would think that there will be some major test cases to set some precedents. I believe that there is another case before the courts that involves flickr and some guy from Holland. I can recall hearing about it but can't find the details now.

I agree with Sheldon, it is all screwed up. I read an article a while back on the ASMP site that talked about an attempt to pass a law about so called orphan images. If the author is unknown then someone can claim the copyright. Nice, in theory at least, someone could grab your pic, strip the EXIF and copyright mark and claim it as their own.

This case is not about copyright - it is about the lack of a model release, which is a completely separate issue. For a picture to be used commercially - which a Virgin Mobile billboard certainly is, the end-user (Virgin Mobile Au) must acquire a model release - which it did not. It does not matter if the pic was in good or bad taste, they did not have the model's permission to run the photo in an ad. Had the pic simply been published in a newspaper or magazine then it would fall under editorial use and not commercial use, in which case only the copyright issues would be applicable.

I am not a lawyer... but I live with one. She does not specialize in copyright law... I do all the research in that area.

Ain't it funny how you can't take a photo of a commercial object/subject and use it for commercial purpose (without there consent), but they can just grab a private photo and use it for commercial purpose? Helps them save money by not needing a photographer?

http://www.cnn.com …virgin.flickr.l​awsuit.cnn

CNN covering it...
Glad I never used Flickr nor listened to anyone who highly recommended it.

one of the problems with all this was that the pics werent rights protected meaning anyone can use them without the photogs permission.. as for the release? we'll see how that pans out.