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Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

nytimes.com

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Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#11

Post by pavel_lishin »

jonknee wrote: post #6
MichaelGG wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user agreed to assign all rights to the image when uploading the image. Any user suing to the contrary would have to say they didn't really agree. More interesting is when some user uploads a photo they found elsewhere, to which they don't have the copyright.

Do you have to agree anything to upload? The official Twitter iOS app lets you upload photos to twitpic and I don't think you need to create an account or anything.

The agreement might be rolled into the one you agree to when you use the app.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#12

Post by pavel_lishin »

itswindy wrote: post #7
MichaelGG wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user agreed to assign all rights to the image when uploading the image. Any user suing to the contrary would have to say they didn't really agree. More interesting is when some user uploads a photo they found elsewhere, to which they don't have the copyright.

I am not a lawyer but I know that a contract has to be fair and obey other laws to be valid.

How do you objectively evaluate "fair"? $0.30 cents per text isn't fair.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#13

Post by elehack »

MichaelGG wrote: post #3
ignifero wrote: post #2

Without the user's consent (and their share of the royalties)? Regardless of their TOS, how would that stand in a court of law?

The user agreed to assign all rights to the image when uploading the image. Any user suing to the contrary would have to say they didn't really agree. More interesting is when some user uploads a photo they found elsewhere, to which they don't have the copyright.

IANAL, of course, but I looked at the TOS again and it doesn't assign the rights to TwitPic. It just grants them the (non-exclusive) rights to use & sublicense. So they can use, they can sell, but they can't go after you for doing so via other channels.

It's still shady that they can resell your work in commercial channels other than the TwitPic service itself, but it's not like they obtain total control and ownership of your pictures.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#14

Post by huntero »

Apparently the news agency is primarily interested in the photos that Twitpic's celebrity users are posting. That's going to be a severe red-flag to celebrities and word will spread quickly among them/their social media folks to switch to another service.

As these popular trend-setting celebrities switch services, so will their followers. This is nothing but bad for the future of Twitpic.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#15

Post by _ouxp »

jcasman wrote: post #8

I'm trying to imagine a scenario where I post a pic, they sell it in one of their publications, then sue when someone else also uses it. I think it sounds ridiculous, but isn't this one of those legal scenarios were it's possible but not probable? No, I'm still not happy about the principal of it.

Also, users don't assign copyright, they merely (if the users have actually agreed to these terms) grant TwitPic a non-exclusive license. All someone has to do to get around it is tweet @ you and get your permission to use the image instead of getting TwitPic's (or their affiliate's) permission.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#16

Post by cookiecaper »

itswindy wrote: post #7
MichaelGG wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user agreed to assign all rights to the image when uploading the image. Any user suing to the contrary would have to say they didn't really agree. More interesting is when some user uploads a photo they found elsewhere, to which they don't have the copyright.

I am not a lawyer but I know that a contract has to be fair and obey other laws to be valid.

The reality is that there is generally a lot of leeway in "fair" as far as contracts go. You can definitely sign an intentionally adversarial contract and it will usually hold up. I have only known courts to nullify contracts when they specifically violate a given law; for instance, a contract where one side can kill the other side in event of breach would not be valid because it runs afoul of murder/assault laws. However, a contract where an exorbitant fee is levied upon one side in event of breach would generally be held as long as all parties were deemed capable of understanding the contract and endorsing it by their own free will (i.e., not under duress) when it was signed.

IANAL, this whole post may be and probably is wrong. Please correct me.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#17

Post by antihero »

From their TOS:

"All content uploaded to Twitpic is copyright the respective owners. The owners retain full rights to distribute their own work without prior consent from Twitpic. It is not acceptable to copy or save another user's content from Twitpic and upload to other sites for redistribution and dissemination.

By uploading content to Twitpic you give Twitpic permission to use or distribute your content on Twitpic.com or affiliated sites. "

So your images are safe(ish) for now, I think.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#18

Post by makmanalp »

antihero wrote: post #17

From their TOS: "All content uploaded to Twitpic is copyright the respective owners. The owners retain full rights to distribute their own work without prior consent from Twitpic. It is not acceptable to copy or save another user's content from Twitpic and upload to other sites for redistribution and dissemination. By uploading content to Twitpic you give Twitpic permission to use or distribute your content on Twitpi…

World Entertainment News Network sure looks like it's affiliated with Twitpic now.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#19

Post by phaylon »

antihero wrote: post #17

From their TOS: "All content uploaded to Twitpic is copyright the respective owners. The owners retain full rights to distribute their own work without prior consent from Twitpic. It is not acceptable to copy or save another user's content from Twitpic and upload to other sites for redistribution and dissemination. By uploading content to Twitpic you give Twitpic permission to use or distribute your content on Twitpi…

It also says

However, […], you hereby grant Twitpic a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and Twitpic's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, […]

I think the "sublicensable and transferable" part is relevant here. What I found most odd was the claim to go after unauthorized uses. I would've expected that this has to be done by the copyright owner in many countries.

Re: Twitpic makes deal with news agency to sell users' uploaded photos

#20

Post by daimyoyo »

When the story of twitpic's TOS broke, I immediately deleted all the pictures I'd uploaded and changed to Mobypicture. It's not as good, but their TOS says in no uncertain terms "All rights of uploaded content by our users remain the property of our users and those rights can in no means be sold or used in a commercial way by Mobypicture or affiliated third party partners without consent from the user." I like that. No ambiguity at all.
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