What those Social Networking Terms of Service Agreements Mean for Photographers
November 10, 2009 | David | Comments 3
Attorney Christopher J. Reese has just released his examination of the legalese in those Terms of Service Agreements that we all sign to use Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, and YouTube for the American Society of Media Photographers. I think that the results of his investigation will be of great interest to all of us digital photographers who share our work through any variety of social media services. You can read the complete article here.
On a personal note, I am teaching for the ASMP Ohio Valley chapter tomorrow at their Photo Tech 2009 Workshop! If you are in the area, I urge you to come over and check out this incredible event.
Filed Under: News
About the Author: David’s sports and landscape images are often used on the web and in outdoor sports publications. He has an extensive knowledge of digital photography and is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. David is a talented instructor and his entertaining teaching style works for students of all skill levels.
In 2009, David Marx led digital photography programs for the 
Great find, David.
I agree that photographers (and everyone else posting things on the Internet) should be aware of the terms of service for sites that they use. Not at least skimming them is akin to signing a contract you haven’t even read.
That being said, I don’t want Terms of Service to scare photographers away from what is, in my opinion, the way business is done these days. For photographers with clients (wedding and event photographers, in particular), sharing their work in a way that lets it easily and readily be re-shared with others is imperative.
Put a visible watermark on part of your image; not to keep some 15 year old sister of the bride from downloading your tiny jpg off Facebook and setting it as the desktop background on her netbook. Watermark those images so that when they get shared (which you should want to happen) viewers of the images know where to find you and pay you money to take pictures of their wedding. (That’s how my wife and I found our wedding photographers!)
If you’re ready to really hit it with Social Media and step up your sales, I recommend Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk. David (the author of this post) gave the book to me, and I’m recommending it to you. It’s cheap, short, easy-to-read, inspirational, and helpful. You won’t regret it.
-Scott
Completely agree that one should always read all the text in TOS agreements before clicking & giving permission. I treat TOS just as I would a paper contract & I never sign anything without reading all the print first. Understanding what you’re agreeing to saves a lot of stress and frustration down the line.
I really need to get on top of my watermarking. Some images I’ve marked but the majority I haven’t & I do realize I’m taking risk by not marking all of the ones I’ve shared publically. I do wonder though if watermarking works if someone is really intent on stealing your images? I feel that if I’m posting my work anywhere online I’m taking a bit of a risk & watermarks may deter some people but others may like the challenge of trying to remove them.
Que,
For me, the watermark is less about preventing others from stealing my images and more about allowing someone who may see those images to find me and possibly hire me for work.
Lightroom 2 is capable of visibly watermarking your photos in the lower-left corner with any text you have in your Copyright metadata field. It’s pretty easy to crop off the part of a photo (or clone it out, if someone really wanted to). Putting a large watermark that covers more of the image is certainly more effective against unauthorized use, but who wants to look at a picture with a huge watermark on the center of it!?!
If people really want to steal your images, they’ll probably be able to. I believe that is a risk I’m willing to take by sharing my work online. In the end, I feel like I come out ahead.
Thanks for commenting,
Scott Rouse