The Click and Copyright

Hey, this is Trent. Let’s talk.

I just got this short, anonymous e-mail:

Bet if someone took some of your images you’d cry foul.

It’s a very valid topic, and I thank whoever sent it. No one likes to get ripped off. When I find my photos being used without my permission, I have to look at the situation. Are they making money with my work? Did they make a single print for their fridge or did they make a hundred prints to sell online? Did they e-mail my photo to their friends with a link to my site or use it to sell a product? My response to these instances is based on the use of the image and the damage done. Sometimes I laugh it off, sometimes I have to take action. Like any artist or photographer I could list several people who have stolen my work and cheated me out of money that I will never be able to recover.

But since the writer is obviously talking about photographs from other photographers appearing on this site, here is my response:

The purpose of The Click is to promote great work. That’s it.

The purpose of posting photographs here, appearing at 500 pixels across or smaller, is to promote that work and encourage people to see it at its original location. Every photograph is linked to the original source, without exception. Text quoted from articles is kept to a minimum to encourage readers to click through to the original source for the full story.

In the two years I’ve been linking, I’ve received only one complaint about a photo appearing on The Click. I removed the photo immediately.

Another photographer asked me to use a different photo than the one I had chosen to promote his amazing photo essay. I removed the photo immediately.

In contrast to those two complaints, I have received dozens of e-mails from photographers around the world thanking me for linking to their work, websites, and blogs.

We live in a time when content creators of all industries are faced with vanishing revenue models. Their rights need to be protected. That said, I’d like to think that spreading the word about your photography, artwork, writing, product, movie, etc., is a positive thing and not a theft. I’m not making a cent with this site. (December 2009 UPDATE: The small amount of money from our adverts goes to help with the growing costs of operating/hosting the site.)

If your work appears here and you want it pulled, I’m happy to do so. E-mail me here: theclick.us@gmail.com, and your work will be removed immediately.

Anyone who wants to comment on this topic, agree or disagree, is more than welcome to do so.

0 comments

  1. SR

    That’s surprising that a photographer would complain considering that their image/work is the subject of the post.

    I love The click, check it out daily, saves me a lot of time.

  2. timg

    Crazy Trent. Keep up the great work you do here. Consider me just one of the many that enjoy the links and work you point me to.

  3. Michael Zukerman

    Here use mine.. If you don;t use it, I’m going to bitch like a little school girl to mimic those who complain you used theirs.. The business model of what we who create images is shrinking and expanding all at the same time.. Any effort someone like you puts into the expanding part of the equation should be thanked profusely.. Thank you in advance for using mine.. I ran across this guy out on a lonely piece of road on a Texas road trip.. I shot the images, wrote the story, and produced the video of the shoot.. http://theiconicimage.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-sunday-with-owengene-blackwood.html

  4. NikonRumors.com Admin

    There is something called “fair use” doctrine – just google it or read this article:
    http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

    All big companies are using it (TV, websites), but they also have big legal departments.

    NikonRumors posts are listed here all the time – I do not mind, as long as there is a link back to the original article and only a portion of the article is used. Unfortunately not everybody is doing that.