As I was browsing through copyright infringement issues in photography, I stumbled upon an interesting blog post (http://jorees.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/facebook-and-copyright/) in which the blooger, Joanna Rees, mentions the importance of ethics and copyright of photos on the Internet. Rees claimed that after uploading onto Facebook a few photos she had taken, a former colleague decided to download one of her photos and upload it again as her Facebook profile picture without Rees’ consent. As stated by Rees, “People need to be aware of the ethics of copyright on Facebook and the internet. Just because a friend has taken a good picture of you it does not mean that you have the right to download it and use it for your own purpose. That is stealing…Giving a photographer photo credit is a sign of respect for their work and talent…M
oreover, it is the correct ethical action so please remember to credit the work of your friends and colleagues”.
I thought that this topic was interesting because I feel that the re-uploading and reposting of pictures online through websites such as Facebook and Tumblr is an action very commonly done by people, but many do not fully understand the ethics behind such actions or how copyright plays out. The issue of ownership becomes more complicated when a picture enters the digital world, where the photographer in a sense loses some control over their work and access to their work. For example, by uploading their photos on Facebook, photographers automatically grant the rights to Facebook, as stated in the Facebook Terms of Service. Therefore, some may argue that in order to fully protect the copyright of an image, one should never make it publicly available online, which is unfortunate because with technology’s influence on society today, photographers may want to use the internet as a way to publicize their work.
Another issue when it comes to photography online is the rights of the subjects in the pictures. A subject usually has no rights over a photograph, with the photographer as the copyright owner, unless a contract stating otherwise has been made.However, many argue that subjects should have more rights to the photographs that they are in, especially if it is for perusal use.
