...that they forget it's not always LEGAL or RIGHT.
Taking someone's work and including it in something you think is funny without asking them is something I've done. I admit it. I'm not sure where, but I'm sure, on this blog, I've done it. Probably in the thrill of a creative streak, combining this with that -- after all it's on the Internet, isn't it?
The thing is, if someone said, "Hey that's mine, take it down or give me credit (or whatever they decide to tell me to do)," well then I do it. I don't blow them off because it's convenient and I'm getting a lot of hits off of their work.
Why do you think Kat Herding and Jeremy Outerbridge are no more? We PAID for the stock images, and we still took them down when the photographer emailed us that he was pissed at how they were being used. Could have fought it, sure. Especially since they were paid for and used without breaking the terms and conditions as we saw them. But the artist wanted them down, so down they came. Bye bye.
I'm with Lane Hartwell on this dumb bubble video that included her photo without attribution or permission. She's a professional photographer - like a professional musician - who makes her money off what she shoots through her lens.
It reminds me of the rich kids who pay to play cover tunes in venues that don't even bother to pay ASCAP dues -- the kids can afford to do that because mommy and daddy are paying for college. They get chicks and get to feel like a real musician for their twenty minutes of fame. Then they graduate and become insurance salesmen or Web 2.0 entrepreneurs.
But these same clubs get used to having free music, and the standard is lowered for everyone. The people who get hurt are the REAL artists, who can't afford to play for free, because they do what they do as their LIVING not as something that's a kick to do at a weekend get together.
It's the same with Lane. She can't give away her work - it's how she makes a living.
I blog for free. Yes. And I make my money from writing. Ergo, you wouldn't see me letting a company use a brochure I'm doing for one company in something another company is doing -- let alone for FREE -- just because they think it might add a little something to their project. HELL no.
Brian Solis does a good job introducing us to the lady behind the lens, who Techcrunch's comment brigade of testicularly-challenged web 2.Zeros would prefer to mindlessly savage, rather than use their brains for five seconds and think beyond this one incident. And what the hell is Mike doing talking trash on Matthew's post about Shelley, who provides a careful analysis on her blog? (Though I don't agree with Matthew, who takes umbrage with Lane's decision to issue a legal take-down, I think he handled Mike's ad hominems well.)
Unbelievable.
----
