Copyright Issues

How can the members on this forum post wonderful pictures without worrying about them being "stolen"? Lots of people post high resolution shots which could easily be taken and used by someone else. If someone could explain the reasoning behind this, that would be great. Thanks.

This could be an issue. If we want our photos to be completely safe we really can't post them anywhere. We should also put watermarks on them if we do post them. I don't think most people consider their photos good enough for anyone to want....but some of them are.

The alternative is to not post photos at all, so if you want to share your images, get critiques or provide examples of techniques there is no choice but to post images. Can they be downloaded? Sure - will they be. It really depends, but as for me, it's an acceptable risk.

The reasoning? For me, it's easy: I'm an amateur. I don't care.

If someone downloads and prints one of my pics it's fine with me. If they claim it as their own I'll call them on it, though...

-js

When I was working as a graphic designer I had someone bring in a photo to me that she wanted on her Christmas newsletter. I checked around on the internet to find the source, (it's generally very easy to tell when someone is trying to use a photo that they just "found"). The photo was from a photographer on this forum. Beautiful picture of bridges right after a snow fall. We contacted the person and tried to get a release, and ended up using a very poor quality stock photography photo instead. (Well not poor quality, but poorer composition and subject)

I don't consider the images I upload to the Web to be of good enough resolution to do much with aside from "personal use" -- in other words anything more than a screen display or a small print. I've had requests for uses that I've OK'd, but I've also been payed for more "serious" stuff where I've provided higher resolution files. To me, sharing images here and on my PBase site is part of the enjoyment of the hobby. For things of a more restricted use, well, I have password-protected galleries for that kind of thing.

Noah212 wrote in post #11353732
How can the members on this forum post wonderful pictures without worrying about them being "stolen"? Lots of people post high resolution shots which could easily be taken and used by someone else. If someone could explain the reasoning behind this, that would be great. Thanks.

Because I just don't care that much. If people want to grab some low res files from me off the internet it is not materially hurting me all that much. If I found someone stealing my work I would make them stop.

But to me sharing images and having fun with photography is why I do it. If I sat on everything I ever shot for fear of it being stolen online I think I'd lose some of my interest in photography.

People tend to think single photos are worth far more than they really are. They hear about the one that went for $10K, or the one that earns $100/month from stock. Then they conclude that every half-decent photo is worth that.

I think I've posted exactly one photo on POTN that somebody else might want to print. As others have said, it's a low-res posting. Even if I did sell it, I doubt I'd get enough to stress about.

(I have had three shots from my general Web site published. One earned me money; the other two I gave away free because they were good causes. In all three cases, the people who used them contacted me for permission and high-resolution copies. Maybe there are more that I don't know about; again, I'm not stressing. I doubt that anybody has made thousands off me.)

(As a side comment, I'm responsible some open-source software that people have contacted me to ask if they could use it. The first time I think I asked $10K; I figured that any company could afford that. No sale. On subsequent contacts I kept dropping the price, never getting to agreement. Now that I know the true value, I just give it away.)