Monday, July 15, 2013

My photos taken without my permission on HD wallpaperfresh.com

Despite stating on my blog that I reserve all rights to my photography, and to not use my photography without my permission HERE ARE three of my photos taken and being used without my permission. (as of 7-16_13 the photos have been taken down per my request or so it would seem.)

Who knows what else they've taken without asking or paying for?  Maybe they've taken one of yours?

UPDATE:  the site owner has taken one of my pictures down.  The one with clouds reflecting on the water.  But there are still two of my pictures up on the site.  I've asked that those be taken down too.  We will see.

UPDATE: 7-16-13  It looks like the site owner has removed my photos taken and used without my permission as per my request to remove them from the site.  To make sure I'm going to leave this post up for now.

I guess I'll have to water mark my photography now.  I can't figure out a better way to keep this from happening again.  None of this is fun.  I don't want my blog to be about a bitter dude running around trying to police the internet.  My first thought is to go back to keeping my pictures to myself.  The idea here was to share the photography and the associated experience.  It isn't about self promotion.

When I was in art school, I was really put off by the self promotion of it all.  I never liked the idea of self promotion when it came to self expression.  People would have a show and it was like, this is my art work, I'm so cool.  I really hated that.  At the same time now I don't want people taking my stuff and laying claim on it or selling it.  That's the other side of bother. 

I recently had a university student who felt entitled to take my photography without asking linking back or giving photo credit.  She even tried to convince me she had the right.  Her prof acted like it was an oversight and yet all of the non visual intellectual property had proper citation? What the heck?  If they had asked first and given credit, I probably would have allowed that use.   Others have taken my photos to make a buck where I'm sure it's hard to make ends meet.  I can actually understand that a little more but it still doesn't make it right.  

There are some people ask to use my pictures and for the most part I won't allow my pictures to be used. I'm not taking pictures to sell products or services, but to their credit they at least ask first and that's how it should be.  I'm always impressed when someone asks first.

This blog is about sharing a viewpoint.  I hope people come here and look around and share in my experience without taking bites out of me.  That's what we have insects for.

1 comment:

Jules said...

I'm really glad they took the photos down, HB. I love your last line here, I totally 100% agree. I hope you do decide to still post your photos, because you really do take the time and care to take amazing photos that are so well balanced and really capture moments in time or place. But I understand how off putting it would be to have your stuff stolen and misused, and how that might make a person wary of continuing to post them.