
In an effort to understand the general feeling regarding image theft and to help efficiently compile my own thoughts on image theft and orphaned images and sharing images online, I thought I would posit some questions to the flist. I would love to hear you hold forth about your views and opinions regarding the theft of online images and the hows and whys of protecting said images. I do hold established and fairly strong opinions and thoughts about this myself, but am always open to hearing the viewpoints of others. As I am going to be teaching a few photography panels at Dollectable this summer, I'm sure the subject will come up and I would really enjoy having a well-rounded idea of how most people in the hobby view these subjects.
First, let me say that whatever my opinion is, in no way does that devalue or lessen your own opinion. And in no way am I suggesting that anyone is wrong or daft for thinking a thing.
I am a professional photographer. I get paid money to create images. Sometimes I get paid obscene amounts of money and sometimes I get paid modest amounts of money. I have had my images posted online for pay and printed in publication for pay. I have sold images as stock and created images for stock. I have shared a lot of my own work (non-people) online and have had some of my images printed in publications with no financial recompense.
I have also had images stolen from me. I had an entire maternity portraiture article with photo illustrations lifted off my website and posted as an "interview" in a pregnancy ezine with NO PERMISSION or CONTACT whatsoever. I have had poses and lighting styles "stolen" and advertised as another photographer's original idea.
And you know what?
It's all good. I don't really care if my work is taken. Why would I? And that's where my questions for the flist begin. Why are some folks so deeply concerned about image theft? Is it a loss of perceived monetary income? Is it a concern about legal model releases? Is it about not being credited?
Why don't I care, you ask? Well, because I KNOW the amounts of money paid for photographic work in most industries and it's nominal. Truly. Print publication for photos of just about anyone who is not a celebrity is just not even going to buy you a sushi dinner and a bottle of warm saki. Creative Theft - of poses and lighting, IS infuriating to me, but I know for a fact there is no way to market such ideas nor to copyright a pose. It just cannot be done. I did have a gal, locally, who decided to hone in on my maternity photography - not my birth or breastfeeding since I have worked hard to create special access to such image-making - and I thought about it for a long time, weighed my options, morally and legally, and ultimately decided that there's enough fish to fry for all of us and I just ignored her and her attempts to shove me out of the way. I am still working she has moved on. Being perpetually pissed off or in competition just is NOT a good way to have the creative juices flow.
So, to sum that up - I'm not worried about monetary loss, nor do I care about not being credited or having my ideas stolen because it's just not mentally healthy. For me.
And I am perfectly capable of Idea Theft too - look at the idea I shamelessly stole from Georgia and photographed -

Another issue, with the dolls, at least. Is that we're already into a grey area regarding copyright. We don't own the copyright to photographically market images of the dolls. We don't. Those rights are held exclusively by the companies, ateliers and artists who have made the dolls. I suppose that's another reason why I don't sweat the thought of someone lifting one of my doll photos and using it for whatever nefarious purpose. Quite obviously, if Mr. Dollshe contacted me and said, "hey, we really dig your DS angels and want to hire you to take resin angel photos for us" the game changes completely and I would be working for recompense and you would not see those images posted here and if they were eventually lifted by someone, there would actually be a legal leg to stand on. In the meantime, I feel so jazzed that we are able to do what we like with our doll photos online that possible image theft of those photos is not something I take personally. And I have gladly donated some of my images to whomever has asked to use them.
I don't want to post my images covered with watermarks and I don't want to flock my doll photos. If some Chinese company lifts my low-res images and vectors them up to printable size and slaps them on pencil boxes, why should I be concerned?
Someone on DoA told me that illustrators have more invested in their work. I'm sorry, but that's not true. I did work as a graphic artist for a year for Tower Records back when we only had Apples and camera copy and things were finished by hand. I'm aware of the amount of work that goes on there. Good photography requires the same time and the same technical investments.
I really hope some of you will take the time to share your thoughts with me about these subjects.