Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Flickr, A double-edged sword

TNH_061217_4069.jpg

I recently put this image up on my Flickr site and got the following email,

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I don't really like nudes, but this one appeals to me. It's very appropriate, so I'm using it to illustrate one of my articles to be published by American Chronicle. I hope you don't mind - I always give full credit in any case:
Image by Tan Ngiap Heng who captions it 'TNH_061217_4069.'
I will email you when it does get published.
Thanks.

Frank
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To which I replied,
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Dear Frank,

Thank you for your email and considering using the image for your article in the American Chronicle. I am afraid that the model in the image is a professional model. Although I own the copyright of the image, I am unable to release it for commercial use. It was a test shoot which allows usage in our portfolios only. If you desire to use the image, I will have to negotiate with the model's agency and charge a fee. I might add that the model is from the US, so it is unlikely that it will go unnoticed by her agency.

If you are willing to pay usage rights I am willing to speak to her agency and quote a price. As it is to do with the model and my livelihood as a professional photographer, I am unable to release this image for free. I hope you understand.

Yours sincerely,
Tan Ngiap Heng
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I got a reply with one word in it, 'Thanks!'.

I used Frank's Flickr profile to find out more about him. In his blog, he actually states that he regularly uses images from Flickr for his blog without asking permission first... The article is here.

I have written to the American Chronicle about the incident and am tempted to write to Flickr as well. But in this particular case, Frank Hilario has not actually infringed my copyright yet.

I guess that the more one exposes oneself to the public, the more abuse one exposes oneself to.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Happy New Year!

You can set your privacy settings on Flickr so that your pics can't be downloaded..here is the para from the Flickr FAQ :

I don't want anyone to download my photos. How do I stop that?

You can set a global preference which controls who can download all the different versions of your photos, including the original size. Just choose a relationship level that you're comfortable, from "Only Me" to "Anyone". Being global, it affects all your photos, and is combined with your privacy settings.

Here's an example: You publish a photo of an icecream. If you are only sharing that photo with friends, only your friends will see the icecream photo. Let's say you've set your Allow Downloads to "Anyone". This doesn't mean that anyone will be able to download your icecream photo, because only your friends can access it.

If you have applied a Creative Commons license to your photos, this automatically assumes that you are okay with others downloading your photos. Remove the Creative Commons license from here if you do not want others to download your photos.

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Cheers
LG

Heng said...

Thanks LG. All my rights are reserved on my images. I do want people to see my images. And that is the great thing about Flickr, but yes, it is easier for people to take my image without my consent.