Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion notices that a recent article about Podcasting carried on the BBC website included photos that were taken by a Flickr user. It is not clear if they had gotten permission to do so from the user but they clearly were not credited as a source.
This is the first time I can think of that an established media site included material without attribution and also brings up an interesting point about using RSS feeds and Search Engines as an alternative to the traditional newswires (AP, Reuters, PR Newswire) for sources of republished material.
The article did not credit the photographer, camoby, so it’s unclear if the BBC purchased these images or if he works on staff or he simply let them use the photos gratis. His web site, however, does feature a BBC ticker. What’s known is that these images were not published under a Creative Commons license.
As a friend of mine noted when the news of Flickr’s purchase by Yahoo was announced, “Who owns the photos on Flickr and is Yahoo or anyone else going to profit from the sale of images of my family without my knowledge?” Ads around Flickr images on either Flickr or Yahoo are one thing but distribution to other sites is another thing entirely. Let alone, did Adam Curry release these images as well?
SPIN magazine bought one of my photos for their SXSW edition. They found it on flickr where I posted all the photos of all the bands I shot at South by Southwest. Needless to say, I was thrilled and was paid for it.
oh, by the way, i asked the photographer whether or not he was paid for the photos. he said no, but that he'd given them permission to use them.
oh, by the way, i asked the photographer whether or not he was paid for the photos. he said no, but that he’d given them permission to use them.
I’ll post what I did over at Steve’s blog…
Actually, I wrote that piece. Camoby is my partner and he also works at the BBC, as well as being my alien partner on Bluggcast. We were both present when the interview with Adam took place.
Being my partner, and in a “what’s mine is kind of yours too but I won’t take that for granted” way, I did ask if I could pull it off Flickr. Neither I nor the BBC would ever *dream* of just taking a photo without the say so of the creator of that image. We always strive to give credit where it is due.
As an active podcaster, blogger and Flickrite too, I defend all rights over creative content vigorously. That includes the right to remix and mash-up and create something new, btw.
:0)
Doctoe, thanks for clearing that up for me and all who read this post!