Kelly Gibbons, artist and writer, about me

Friday, July 01, 2005

Yep, I have my panties in a bunch!

Am I wrong?

About a month ago, I ran into a problem with someone using my photographs without permission. I have never had this problem before (to my knowledge), and I never gave it much thought until I had the problem. I never did anything to prevent someone from taking the images (with the exception of a copyright notice at the bottom of the page.

I'm often asked if I'm afraid someone will take my work, and others worried that I should have some sort of block, but I wasn't worried. Then it happened. I have now put a no right click feature on my images--of course this is not full proof, but my hope is that someone will think twice before taking my images without permission.

Truthfully, I never minded if someone "took" the image to use to link back to me, or to post on their site. I've been contacted many times for this, and I am always flattered that someone wants to post my work. Hey, it's promotion. I don't mind that at all. In all of these instances, my name was clearly displayed with the work giving me credit for it.

So, what upset me so much about the photographs?

My name was no where on site where the pictures were posted. The photos were posted next to an interview of someone else, and there was a link under them to my site, but all the link said was See more pictures of Dallas, PA (or something like that). The link was to my photoblog, and there was contact info listed on the site, but no copyright notice (at that time). I didn't have my name all over the site, but if the person wanted to contact me, they could have easily figured it out. In a way, that was significant to me, because, if anyone else just clicked on the posted link, they would have assumed it was the site of the person being interviewed. Yes, my fault for being so discreet, but I still don't think that gives a person the right to use the photos. The person didn't just take the photos, they resized, reformatted and renamed the images. In my opinion, this isn't right.

When I saw the images, I was upset, and sought the advice of others about the situation. Others were even more outraged than me, and said that I had every right to be upset. I tried to contact the site administrator by email, to ask him to remove the pictures (or contact me, so we could work something out), but I did not get a response. Several days past, and I heard nothing, and I was getting worried that the site was a fraud. I'm not extremely technical, but I have heard about bandwidth being stolen, and that sort of thing, and I became a worried. So, I went back on the site to see if I could find any additional info, and I found that the site had a comment field. I posted a message saying, "The photographs from Dallas, PA are being used without my permission. I have asked the administrator to remove them, but have not received a response. I want the photographs removed immediately."

As soon as I posted the comment, my computer crashed. I ended up having to do a complete system restore on it. This sort of confirmed my suspicion that something was not right with the site, but still I have no proof. It truly might be a coincidence, but...that's another story.

Well, the photos were removed, and the site administrator posted a comment admitting that he used the photos without permission, but basically thought he did nothing wrong because he did not use them for commercial purposes. Then, I got a rather hurtful email from the person whose interview was with the photos. She called me rude, narrow minded, and an insult to my community. Yeah, I found out later that it was a legit site, and that she does live in my community (which by the way is very small!) She said that the site administrator was from a different country, and I offended him. She also said that he is an artist, and thought he was doing me a favor by linking the site. I tried to explain to her that although I like the publicity, I didn't like the way it was done. Anyway, in the end, we both had our opinions, but I thought we came to an "understanding". At least it seemed like we left things on nice terms even if we did not completely agree with each other. I left it go.

But, now, I have gotten another nasty email telling me how rude and ungrateful I am for not allowing the pictures to be posted. This email was from someone completely different (as far as I know). Here is part of it:

Too bad you couldn't have asked to be noted for the credits and
let the user display your work there.Too bad as an
artist you couldn't see the value in others seeing
your work where it isn't being used for commercial
profit and enjoy it.Infact,I'd say it was quite a
compliment having it displayed on the site.Your tone
was self righteous.You could have done yourself a
favor and responded nicely and perhaps have had some
commissions.Now you've just alienated yourself as
pompous and rude.

I did ask the administrator to do this. If the administrator had contacted me, or listed my name as the photographer, I would have never posted the comment. I did think it was a compliment; I just didn't like the way it was done. I know this sort of thing is going to happen. I know not everyone is going to like me, or what I do. But, I don't like being called names. Am I wrong?

I'm not looking for a wave of support here (Well, maybe my bruised ego is), but I would know others opinions. How do other artist feel about this, has this happened to you, and how did you respond?

I found this link, and I think it backs me up pretty well. If you would like to know anything about copyrights, it is worth the read. I could not find the author's name on the site, but he does give permission to link, so here it is: What is Copyright Protection?

And, for more info, here's the offical site: U.S. Copyright Office

posted by Kelly @ 7/01/2005 12:52:00 PM

5 Comments:

At July 01, 2005 2:13 PM, Robin said…

Sorry your panties are in a bunch but if that had been me, MY panties would have been choking that piece of crap(not a pretty way to die) who is clearly in the wrong!!!!
Any normal,helpful,considerate person would have emailed you,
Hi Kelly,
You don't know me but I was wondering if I could use your drawings and link to your site for an interview that I am doing. I will have your name and anything else that you would like under your pictures so that there will be no mistake with the credit....blah blah blah...."

See, that would have been the right way to do it. Anything less than that is sneaky and can I throw the word plagiarism out there? That's just Stealing 101.
They weren't trying to HELP you. That little tirade really translated to, "Damn, I got caught. I'm gonna turn this around so KELLY feels bad, ya, that's what I'll do.....blame HER for being ungrateful!!"

Luckily, you're not an idiot and didn't fall for the guilt trip. This person is WRONG!WRONG!! WRONG!!!

I am so sorry this happened to you. People suck. I wish it wasn't this way, but obvously it is.Your art is something special. Do all you can to protect it!
At July 01, 2005 3:41 PM, shelagh said…

Hi Kelly,
Yes, you were right. To use your pictures without permission, RENAME them and resize them and NOT give you the photographers credit, amounts to stealing. Not the way to do things at all and maybe next time they will ask before using someone's work.
I am with you girl. The nasty email must have come from a friend of the interviwee.
At July 02, 2005 4:20 AM, AGK said…

And you already know how I feel.

At this point, this woman is just being a witch, and your best course of action is to ignore her. If she were the site admin, I'd recommend getting your lawyer to write her. But because she appears to be a whack job instead, she just wants to upset you. Keep her e-mails tucked away in case you need them, in the event she continues. You'll want them ;)
At July 02, 2005 8:12 AM, Kelly said…

Thank you for all support! This has made me feel so bad, because normally I do share my work freely. I also want to make it clear, that the woman (interviewee), has not contacted me again. As, I said, as far as I know we left things on OK terms. The latest email is from someone completely different (I think it was someone who read the comment). This email and other comments on the site calling me a jack*** lead me to write this post. Hopefully this is the end! At least I feel better getting it off my chest. Thanks again.

Kelly
At July 02, 2005 8:53 PM, Hope said…

You were so right to do what you did. I think the person(s) who emailed you really don't have a clue what it means to be an artist and not have your work valued correctly. There is always a proper way to do things. Sure, we ALL make mistakes. But if you emailed them and was ignored, then I really don't think that was a continued mistake. So don't feel bad. You did the right thing to protect yourself. If only we could all respect each other!!!