Is it possible to own the copyright of a photograph of a city? You own none of the buildings in the photo.
People are copyrighting the composition of the photograph, not necessarily the subject of it.
Protecting My Copyright
51–60 of 89 posts
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you implying that the use in question was fair use (i.e., that the OP should not have sent the DMCA takedown notice for this use)?
No, she claims she is covered under fair use because she doesn't make any money from it, blah blah blah.
Actually, there have been fair use decisions when an entire work was used non-commercially:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/fair-use-defense/
I'm not saying that's the case here, but whether the use was commercial or not is one of the four factors considered when deciding fair use.
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#53To be clear, I took no joy in shutting her site down. GoDaddy is a bit heavy handed in their response and I have learned a lesson here. The main point is that she used the image without permission and her site went down because of it. To turn around and accuse me of being a part of a diabolical conspiracy was out of left field. She should have contacted GoDaddy and worked it out. I did my part by rescinding my DMCA w…
You handled it better than I would have. I wouldn't have rescinded the DMCA. I cannot stand people who make false accusations, are self-righteous and/or act like they are blameless when they themselves are at fault. If the person genuinely cared about their charitable work their first email would have said. "What do I need to do to get my sites up ASAP." Their anger should have been directed at GoDaddy. If I had rece…
This is funny.
So there are people in this world that do not live up to your standards and react with self-righteousness (btw. shocking) and you suggest the right way to respond to it.
Isn't that self-righteous on its own?
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#54This is ridiculous, and I don't mean the response of that site owner. While yes, that woman is at least slightly nuts, the problem in the first place was "oh the horror, people are using my image, let's throw around DMCA takedowns". Yes, it's not nice to not give attribution, but I don't see a fundamental problem here. What was the loss involved? Nothing. People liked the image, so they used it. Where's there any the…
The problem here is that when you want to use a photo, you either take it yourself, or you take one made by someone else and ask him what are his conditions.
When you take a photo and put it one your web site, this doesn't mean that anyone can grab it and use it.
The problem here is that people think that they can do what they want on the web and if you just send them a mail they will do nothing. DMCA is globally a bad thing but but its at this time the only way to make people respect copyright. It should go away but for a better law.
You can transpose this to software easily. If you put some of your code on your blog, you expect people to respect the law and so your copyright. If your code is under GPL for example, you don't want other peoples to take it and include it in their commercial product without respecting the GPL.
Look at all the work done by GPL violation and how its hard to make people correct their behavior when your are a now know organization. This men is alone trying to protect its right and the only thing that he can do which is effective is to fill a DMCA.
And remember that the copyright law is what make GPL possible...
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#55This is ridiculous, and I don't mean the response of that site owner. While yes, that woman is at least slightly nuts, the problem in the first place was "oh the horror, people are using my image, let's throw around DMCA takedowns". Yes, it's not nice to not give attribution, but I don't see a fundamental problem here. What was the loss involved? Nothing. People liked the image, so they used it. Where's there any the…
"it's not nice to not give attribution"
That's _exactly_ the misunderstanding that gets so many people in trouble.
Whether you like it or not, there _are_ "rules", they're called "copyright". They say that attribution or not, the creator of a photograph has exclusive rights to say what can and can't be done with their work. Nothing about whether you're nice or not, nothing about whether you attribute them or not. If they haven't said you can use it - you _can't_ use it (Yeah yeah, except in some very edge-case calle "fair use", but reproducing an entire photo on your website is _never_ "fair use" - if you are ever tempted to claim fair use, make sure you know exactly what it means first…)
TL;DR, Crazy woman is crazy and wrong. Photographer guy is using the tools society provides to assert rights society says he has. Wishing the laws were different does nothing to change them. Behaving as if the laws are the way you wish them to be has a good chance of making you very unhappy.
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#56I wonder... Does the original website from which the photo was taken had: 1. A statement that the photo was not public domain? 2. A way to contact the author with the clear purpose of license it? I can understand that someone might react against seeing their work all over the Internet used for free, and use the DMCA to prevent that. I can also understand a generous reaction, and feeling flatter instead. While I don't…
"I wonder... Does the original website from which the photo was taken had: 1. A statement that the photo was not public domain? 2. A way to contact the author with the clear purpose of license it?"
It doesn't work that way.
Just like you don't need to put a sign on your door saying "The belongings in this house belong to me. If you want to buy them call me on 5555-1234".
The _default_ is that if you dont own a photograph(/song/story/program/movie), then somebody else does - and unless they've explicitly permitted you some rights to use it, you have _no_ right to use it. (with some very specific "fair use" exceptions, which are far less well understood by just about everybody than they should be. If you're ever tempted to claim "fair use", make sure you know what it means first…)
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#57Is it possible to own the copyright of a photograph of a city? You own none of the buildings in the photo.
The original photographer has no ability to stop you going to the same spot and taking your own photograph.*
But just 'cause you could-but-haven't done that, doesn;t mean you can use his without his permission.
(* although they might be able to make some claim you've copied his composition if their photograph has some remarkable enough artistic input beyond "just a picture of a city")
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#58This is ridiculous, and I don't mean the response of that site owner. While yes, that woman is at least slightly nuts, the problem in the first place was "oh the horror, people are using my image, let's throw around DMCA takedowns". Yes, it's not nice to not give attribution, but I don't see a fundamental problem here. What was the loss involved? Nothing. People liked the image, so they used it. Where's there any the…
This is a perfect example of why DMCA is great. He manually made a list of site and sent notices. No wrong claims, no automatic bullshit. Now if only there were some laws requiring DMCA to be used that way…
But taking something, making money of it and not even attributing where it's from? That's just the lowest of lows.
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#59This is ridiculous, and I don't mean the response of that site owner. While yes, that woman is at least slightly nuts, the problem in the first place was "oh the horror, people are using my image, let's throw around DMCA takedowns". Yes, it's not nice to not give attribution, but I don't see a fundamental problem here. What was the loss involved? Nothing. People liked the image, so they used it. Where's there any the…
There isn't any theft, but it's still violation of the creators right to his work. I've actually been in his place and spent time approaching the sites directly, it was significantly more difficult and more of a waste of my time than the DMCA process seems to be.
Essentially, don't be a dick and lift someones picture because it's on the internet.
Re: Protecting My Copyright
#60What is not explain in the post is how do we prove to be the author of a photo ?