My friend and fellow blogger David Berkowitz wrote a great article on MediaPost about how Flickr users can optimize their photos for search, connect to friends and fellow bloggers and how allowing one’s photos to be used across the web under Creative Commons will drive SEO for your site. Great points.
This reminded me of my recent post about Creative Commons and an insightful comment I received from Mark Sebastian who shares his photos using CC. Remember, this scares a lot of photographers because it takes control (and potentially their livelihood) out of their hands.
I realize that some people “borrow” copies of my photos without attribution. It’s just something that will happen, no matter how you choose to license your photos.
But since I offer them openly, people are more likely to tell me about it rather than “steal” it without letting me know. So far, I’ve been in books/magazines across the world, been contacted by art directors, ad agencies and major global companies (Ducati!), not to mention dozens of photography blogs/sites.
Overall, my opinion is that artist (photographers) should create freely, without fear.
Recently, an architectural firm in SF contacted me about using this photo of mine from Flickr: View from the Miyako Hotel in Japantown. Initially, I was really excited. Cool! Someone is willing to pay for a high-res version of my photo. Then, after sleeping on it, I realized…wait, who ISN’T paying for my photos? This of course scared me. I checked the license that I had established on my flickr account as well as the sharing capabilities on my account settings. At the time, my photos were a mix of using no rights, copyright, and creative commons. While I am a huge fan of using the 6 varieties of creative commons, as I documented on this post on my blog, the photographer in me got scared of allowing my photos to float out into the web world. I am still debating whether to use one of the creative commons licenses or full copyright.
From the user’s perspective, Google Images is just so easy to use. And it of course rewards webmasters who optimize their images for search with tags and keywords by delivering visitors to their web sites. But is it too easy? And does it encourage the stealing of images and an overall mindset that images should be free?
I agree with the environment that Flickr encourages on its Community Guidelines, one that enables sharing while requiring respect for the photographer creator. In contrast, the current copyright laws are so inflexible with such black and white views of what can and cannot be used, remixed, etc that they don’t really work in the era of digital media where remixing is all about attributing credit to their source via blogging, podcasting, linking and crediting. Yet, how many bad apples are out there stealing photos without the proper attribution? Will users really take the time-consuming and costly high road and reach out to photographers to ask for the photo?
When my brother, Andrew, and I were in Madrid, sitting in front of the Reina Sofia Museum, two young women sat down next to us. As they were preparing some signs to put up nearby, they were laughing. What were they doing I asked in Spanish? Looking for a job they told me, using the following flyers with tabs that had a URL on YouTube since there were a number of advertising agencies in the neighborhood.
Evidently, Seth Godin’s blog post about “why bother having a resume” rings true in Spain. If someone wants to work in marketing/advertising, why should they market themselves like everyone else with just a resume? Why not produce a YouTube video, write an article, write a blog (some call it the 3D resume) or do something different?
Roughly translated, the poster reads “Two women with a lot of energy from Valencia seek a creative director to put them to work.”
Here is the video from YouTube – their own 30 second commercial: creative, provocative, funny and requesting a response. Side note: if you turn on the TV in Europe, every other commercial has a sexual reference or joke when compared to the US. Clearly, the Puritans all left Europe and came to the US! So, their message here (written on pad of paper) is “This is all you are going to see about sex” following their hand gestures.
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