Help! Found my picture somewhere!

[no.absolutes]

Ok, ok, so shame on me for using Flickr, I guess, but ok, I found one of my photos on an article about sexting/sex offenders? I admit, the photo does fit, and the actual picture is watermarked and linked back to me, but there is no actual credit written.

Check it out here: The Real Purpose of Sex Offender Registries | The Neighborhood Crime Map

Is there anything I can do? On Flickr, the photo says "All Rights Reserved". I had an email written up, but I wanted to see what you all had to say. Really, I'll be happy with just a credit, but do I have grounds for anything else?

Here is my draft, I have not sent this yet:

James,
My photo from Flickr is featured in this article ( The Real Purpose of Sex Offender Registries | The Neighborhood Crime Map ) This is a picture of me that I took as part of a self-portrait project. I understand that the content does fit very well with your article, but I would appreciate a credit/a caption on the photo.

Please let me know if you can accommodate me. I don't mind the picture being used, I just deserve credit where credit is due as the image is copyrighted with all rights reserved.

Thank you,
Becky Brewer
3368705398
No Absolutes Photography
http://www.no-absolutes.org

Edited to add: I also found my photo on their facebook where they linked to the article and my picture is the thumbnail.

[SusanH1970]

Actually, if you click on the picture in the article, it links right back to your Flickr page. I had this happen to me once before and threw a pretty memorable hissy fit about it here, LOL. Since your watermark is on it and it does link right back to your Flickr site, technically you are getting credit for it.

[no.absolutes]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

Actually, if you click on the picture in the article, it links right back to your Flickr page. I had this happen to me once before and threw a pretty memorable hissy fit about it here, LOL. Since your watermark is on it and it does link right back to your Flickr site, technically you are getting credit for it.

True, so do you think I should just swallow it and let it go without an actual written credit? Seems like they use Flickr a lot to get photos and they do leave them linked, but on some photos they get from other sites, they do leave a caption with credit :/ I'm confused hahaha

[SusanH1970]

My situation was a little different from yours, as it was a blogsite that was just randomly grabbing thumbnails of photos from photo sharing sites using tags, and the blogger didn't actually choose my photos. Not sure of the legalities in your case - I'm sure someone more knowlegable will jump in. If you want, here is my thread. It's good for a laugh, anyway - Inkista was kind enough to enlighten me on the legalities of what happened there.

[no.absolutes]

Well, after reading that I just feel even more confused haha

[vandergus]

Since your image is listed as "All rights reserved", they should have contacted you before using it or just not used it at all. Copyrighted images can still be used without the creator's consent under fair use laws but I don't think this particular usage would fall into that category. A lot of online blogs use flickr as a source for images and the diligent ones will stick to images licensed under Creative Commons. I think you're well within your rights to ask them to take it down, just realize that this sort of thing is bound to happen once in a while if you use flickr.

[SusanH1970]

LOL! Sorry 'bout that!

You could try Nicole's suggestion if you want to break the link and have it removed from their site. Or, I suppose you go ahead and ask them if they'd add in a "Photo courtesy of....."

But I wouldn't worry too much, as your watermark is intact and it does link back to your Flickr. Could be worse - they could have taken a screen shot so it didn't link back to you and cloned out your watermark.

[no.absolutes]

Originally Posted by vandergus

Since your image is listed as "All rights reserved", they should have contacted you before using it or just not used it at all. Copyrighted images can still be used without the creator's consent under fair use laws but I don't think this particular usage would fall into that category. A lot of online blogs use flickr as a source for images and the diligent ones will stick to images licensed under Creative Commons. I think you're well within your rights to ask them to take it down, just realize that this sort of thing is bound to happen once in a while if you use flickr.

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

LOL! Sorry 'bout that!

You could try Nicole's suggestion if you want to break the link and have it removed from their site. Or, I suppose you go ahead and ask them if they'd add in a "Photo courtesy of....."

But I wouldn't worry too much, as your watermark is intact and it does link back to your Flickr. Could be worse - they could have taken a screen shot so it didn't link back to you and cloned out your watermark.

Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't caught something like that before! Really, I don't mind it there, I would just like a caption of credit. I say that is not too much to ask for, so I'm going to. I'll let you all know my results. If they don't respond within a few days, then I guess I'll go to live-and-learn, if not breaking links.

[SusanH1970]

Becky, I found this on Flickr's help section:

I've found my photos on someone else's website, what do I do?
There are a few ways that your photo might be displayed outside of Flickr, but still hosted here. Some of the ways include:


*Blogs
*Tag search applications
*Web-based games (often fun memory based programs)
*Screen savers (displaying most recent uploads, or photos from Explore, etc.)
*Desktop photo display widgets (like Apple's Dashboard or Yahoo! Widgets)

Through the Flickr API, it is possible to construct such websites and applications that query Flickr's publicly available photos via tags or user ID and build dynamic content that displays photos in interesting ways. If they are properly using the Flickr API and abiding by the requirements, the photo as seen on the page will link back to the photo page as it is found in your photostream and it will be for non-commercial use. The actual image itself is not hosted on that site, but the display will probably look different than what you are used to.

Some people are not comfortable with this, and we understand that. To that end, we allow our members to opt-out of applications that query Flickr's database using the API. Your photos will still be searchable on Flickr.com and you will still be able to use third party sites for your own stream if you give them permission via the authorization process. Separate from the API Opt-out, we offer the opportunity for members to hide the 'Blog This' button above your images. This will prevent people from using Flickr's integrated blogging feature found above a photo, though it is not a guarantee that your photo will not be blogged manually.

Note: There are a few instances where your image may be hosted on Flickr, but someone has just linked to the static image element and not through to your photostream itself. This is against the Flickr Community Guidelines. If you have questions about that, feel free to drop us a note via Get Help.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by no.absolutes

Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't caught something like that before! Really, I don't mind it there, I would just like a caption of credit. I say that is not too much to ask for, so I'm going to. I'll let you all know my results. If they don't respond within a few days, then I guess I'll go to live-and-learn, if not breaking links.

Keep us updated, I'm curious to see how this goes. Good luck!