Do You Really Want To Claim That Picture As Your Own?

So, usually I’m not one to get to irritated with people online, but this is not one of those times.

There has been a lot of debate regarding photo rights and what people can use online.  Most bloggers I know of, especially those from Tumblr, use whatever image they want with little regard for sources.  While technically just adding in a source is not the correct way of using images, it’s more proper than just claiming something as your own.

Even I’m guilty of using images that are not my own.  However, I usually try to link to the original site where I found the image, and if there is a credit, I will include it. The only time I do not use certain images is when they are specifically from a photographer with their name on it. Most of the pictures out there I find it hard to know who the original source is, so I can’t label it.

Just this week, I was on Tumblr and I found a really nice background of Colin O’Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison sharing the infamous Captain Swan kiss that has set the fandom all in a marvelous tizzy.  It was posted as the background of the blog  Because You Didn’t See This Coming…

I loved the image, and I am going to include it with this post so you can see. A charming wintery background, and then the couple kissing.  So, I posted it on Tumblr, crediting the site I found it on, though I figured well, the image could have come from anywhere.

The edited version from the original

Not two hours later, I received a message from the blogger asking me to take down ‘her’ image. Well, technically, it is polite to remove an image if it isn’t your own and the ‘owner’ wants it down.  So, I removed the image and apologized profusely for upsetting the person.  The reply I got was this.

“If you want to promo me, you can just explain my blog and link it. But thank you for removing it when I asked. No worries. I’ve dealt with assholes in the past, thus why I got really mad, but it’s fine now!”

Okay, fine. Whatever. I went on my merry way.

Until the next morning.

The Original Image

See, it’s all fine and good to say you have created an image and it is yours, if it actually is yours.  However, when you take an image from the internet of say, a famous couple kissing, and edit it and add a background, I’m sorry, but that original image is not yours.  Did you ask for permission to use it and edit it?  In this instance, did you contact the ABC network and the producers and photographers of Once Upon A Time and ask them if you could use the image?  If not, then you are breaking all the copyright and image rules out there.

You do not own public images like this unless you are the photographer.  So, I can just take that image, and edit it a bit, and call it my own.  In fact here, let’s just do that.   Oh my, look at that.  It’s not the same, but look at the couple, well they are still what was the original.  I’m going to call this my own.  And I’m sorry, but no one can use it without my permission.

My edited version of the edited version. (Oh and Merry Christmas CSers and Oncers)

I think that sounds right. Don’t you?  See how ridiculous that is?  These images out there are corrupted and edited by thousands of fan girls.  Then they get upset if said image is posted without their consent, but I’m sorry, they do not own the original image and cannot claim it’s theirs.

Now, I’m not one to get on a soap box, but I think there are times when I need to speak up. I give this a warning to people who blog and ‘edit’ pictures.  Unless the image is one you took with your own camera, you cannot claim it is yours just because you edited it a bit.  Editing is easy now. Anyone can do it.  I’ve just proven that. It is impossible to call something yours, if you have no rights to it.

Signing off
~Kate

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