Photo copyright protection and photobucket

12 years ago

I just logged onto photobucket and got a popup with their new privacy policy update. This paragraph in there bothers me:
Public Postings. Photographs and videos which you submit for use on public areas on Photobucket are considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by others in accordance with the Terms of Use. If you submit any personal or PII for display in public areas, other people who visit the Site may see it. If geotags are included in your postings, those will be viewable, too, but we offer you the ability to disable this information in the Account Settings of your account. Alternatively, if the option exists, you might want to disable the location settings on your camera or phone.

The part in bold really bothers me. After what happened to Alison, and having some of my blog photos copied to other sites, I know that copyright means nothing to a lot of people, but for photobucket to explicitly give away my rights to photos I've posted there really bothers me.

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Comments (10)

ayerg73
12 years ago
I just got an email from a tile store in Nashville that I contacted for a quote. It has a beautiful picture of Bee's splash and telling me all about their 3-day sale on beveled arabesque.

Scary that our pics can just show up anywhere...
marcolo
12 years ago
The location information bit is even more disturbing.

Make sure your photos are marked private (you can still link to them) and set to permanently strip off all location information upon import.
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Using Windows 7 & Firefox, I can't right click on a Flickr photo to copy the URL, but it's designed that way so that nobody else can either. It's supposed to prevent people from copying your photo without your permission (even though you could just use the Windows Snipping Tool or the PrtSc key to copy the image & save it to your computer for uploading). To copy the URL, click on the Flickr picture & click on the Share arrow. You'll have a number of size & format options to Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V into a .GW post. In the Share options, you can link your Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest account for easy sharing with those too. What got me using Flickr was my photo processing software, PaintShop Pro & ACDSee. Both have an Upload To Flickr feature. So it's easy to take the pictures, fix, tweak or tag them in the software, then upload to Flickr from the software.
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beekeeperswife
12 years ago
ayerg73--not to worry--those photos belong to them. They paid to have them taken and they own the rights to them. I am allowed to use them as well. When they show up on other's blog sites without referencing MS&T, then it is a problem.

I think PB is just trying to let you know that once you put your photo out on a public site it can be grabbed and used anywhere. But if you mark your account private, then only you have access to seeing the PB pictures while in PB.
SparklingWater
12 years ago
There is an option under "privacy" settings to not show where photos were taken.

Photobucket Privacy settings

Content Privacy Allow others to copy my photos & videos

Allow comments in my albums Show where my photos were taken

When I upload, permanently remove information about where my photos were taken

Hope this helps!
enduring
12 years ago
I was thinking that if your account was marked "private" then only the picture that you posted was visible for everyone, & not your whole account. I am not surprised that once a picture is posted that it's no longer yours. I believe that is the way other sites function, such as Facebook.

I have noticed some people watermark there picts. I did that yesterday to some I posted in the design forum. Not that they are that great but I will be doing it again.
brickeyee
12 years ago
And keep in mind if you can display the image on a screen it can be copied.

There is all sorts of 'image grabbing' SW available.

Ad after it has been captured you can ten edit it to whatever degree you want.

Pixel by pixel if you want to work hard.
User
12 years ago
The whole "any pics are up for grabs from anyone" is the whole basis of Pinterest. And it's why I suspect that there will be lawyers involved and that it will change as well in the near future. Copyright law isn't obsolete, but the internet is sure trying to stamp it out.
Circus Peanut
12 years ago
Another way to add some protection is to make sure that whatever software you use to upload the digital photos from your camera to your computer has the location import setting turned OFF. This way at least that bit of information won't be there to hide in the first place.
rococogurl
12 years ago
I'm going to pass along what Spike, the original owner of GW told me about 6 years ago. If you're concerned about controlling any photo, don't post it on the internet. Once it's up, there is no way to take it back.

Like it or not, our copyright laws have been pretty much shredded by technology in the past 5 years. They're technically there but not enforceable as a practical matter.

It's an area that needs dramatic overhaul and a way to embed ownership in the original photo. It can be done fairly easily but has not been done yet.

Folks on this forum tend to know this but in case someone doesnt -- if you sign up for a photo site like Photobucket -- use a handle, not your real name. I cannot tell you how many times I've clicked on a link and gone to someone's photo album and been horrified because that person has basically posted their last name and address on the internet. Ditto for YouTube.

And I know you all are aware of being doubly careful with pix of the kiddos. No names, locations etc.

As for Pinterest, I know they are pinning from everywhere but it's a very nice community (at least for the moment) and most are surprisingly good about sourcing IME.
writersblock (9b/10a)
12 years ago
> a way to embed ownership in the original photo

This part is easy enough and can be done now, either through using the file metadata or with something like the digimarc system. But the problem is that there's really no way to keep dishonest people from stealing, and a lot of people have a sense of entitlement where anything digital is concerned. (As an author, I found one torrent site where more than 12,000 copies of my last book had been downloaded within three weeks of publication.)

No matter what you do, if someone wants it, they'll get it. As for putting watermarks and other disfiguring stuff on your photo, there are plenty of graphics shops overseas where you can send a photo and they'll photoshop whatever you want for a dollar.

Spike is still right.

Photo copyright protection and photobucket

Comments (10)

ayerg73

marcolo

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