Intellectual property 101

Sigh. From over on SLOG, where they used one of my photos in violation of it’s creative commons license:

“Purple Mark is a nice guy, and I’m sure brunch is lovely. However, that has nothing to do with the use of the photo here. I don’t care where you snagged it from, you have a responsibility to track down the copyright before posting it.

You do not have permission from the photographer to use this photo in this way. I know, because I am the photographer.

Luckily for you, it’s not a full copyright, but licensed under a generous Creative Commons license. I take thousands of photos for FREE USE by anyone who wants to use them for any noncommercial purpose, as long as the photographer is credited and a link back to the source is provided. In addition to the rules of the license, I am very flexible and easy to work with when people ASK PERMISSON to use things for commercial purposes. In these cases however, I generally don’t allow photos of people or the work of artists without the permission of those people or artists.

See this link for the full text of the license on this photo:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en-us

I know you’re just a guest, so I asked nicely first. Do me the favor of playing by the rules, or I will ask SLOG to remove the photo.

I repeat: properly credit the photo, and this will suffice as the link back to the source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasart/169499957/ which ALSO links to the CC license, clear as day. Please give other photographers the same courtesy in the future - because while this one instance isn’t really that big a deal, in the information age intellectual property and data exchange is very important.”

context:
http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/06/gay_pride_in_tel_aviv_has_low_turnout

I’m too tired to take on CC stuff, I wasted all my moral energy on the whole female commodification thing in the 90s as a dj and see where refusing to play all-girl parties and shake my ass on the internet got me. Anyway, I tried. I feel bad because I let Seattlest and the PI slide earlier this week on linking back properly because they at least credited, but I had to say something. I’m sure eventually I’ll tire of this too, and someone younger and smarter can take the world on.