What you should know about Photobucket

[Fishypapa]

Since many of you I've seen share your pics via Photobucket I thought it would be good to remind you of their use policy. What follows is direct copy and paste from their terms of service.

If you make your content public, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to copy, distribute, publicly perform (e.g., stream it), publicly display (e.g., post it elsewhere), reproduce and create derivative works from it (meaning things based on it), anywhere, whether in print or any kind of electronic version that exists now or later developed, for any purpose, including a commercial purpose.

You are also giving other Users the right to copy, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and create derivative works from it via the Site or third party websites or applications (for example, via services allowing Users to order prints of Content or t-shirts and similar items containing Content, and via social media websites).

In a nutshell. If you upload and share it on their site, you have effectively relinquished any right to claim over how it can be used including Photobucket or some other person taking your image and making money off of it. Under these terms you have no right to compensation.

I just wanted everyone to be aware of this considering how beautiful many of your images are. (I was a professional photog for about 10 years so copyright is a big thing to me)

[DNA]

This would not hold in Europe.
The US has jungle laws. The survival of the bureaucrats. Sue or be sued. Disclaimers and similar silly stuff.
Over here you can say what you like, but if it does not make sense you'll have to eat it.

[Fishypapa]

This would not hold in Europe.
The US has jungle laws. The survival of the bureaucrats. Sue or be sued. Disclaimers and similar silly stuff.
Over here you can say what you like, but if it does not make sense you'll have to eat it.

Totally agree with you. Sickening the way many things operate here. :sad2:

[IslandCrow]

Thanks for pointing that out, as I'm sure many people don't realize it. Photobucket certainly isn't the only one with similar terms of course, as I've seen terms similar to this, so I'd highly recommend to everyone to carefully read the terms on any of these image sharing websites. Now, realistically, this won't really be a factor for any of us. With the millions of images on these sites, the chances of one of ours getting sold to Pepsi for their next big ad campaign with no compensation to the photographer is pretty negligible, but theoretically something like that could happen (generally, the site can only sublicense the image to one of their "partners", though that could be anyone).

[IPT]

maybe not Pepsi - however there have been many posts on this forum regarding photo's being taken and used by vendors selling fish or coral. It happens. Most of the responses have been to insist they remove it and so on. Common wisdom and advice basically dictated that if you posted it on the web, consider it open for public use. Looks like the small print is very clear that if you post it that way you are essentially legally licensing it to secondary use.

It's a shame, because a lot of people (including myself) will usually not post their best or favorite work. I've become more laxidasical about it, but still will often not post my very best images as I prefer to keep them for my own private collection or use.

[Misled]

It's a shame, because a lot of people (including myself) will usually not post their best or favorite work. I've become more laxidasical about it, but still will often not post my very best images as I prefer to keep them for my own private collection or use.

This. I will normally water a pic down so much it's not worth using. It may make things look a little grainy at times, but that's the way it is.

[IslandCrow]

Another thing to point out while we're on the subject. . .if you don't already (and I didn't until fairly recently), get any pictures you put out there registered through the copyright office. I'll have to put together a quick tutorial sometime, but it's not very difficult or expensive, especially if you do it in large batches. While it's true that the photographer under most circumstances will always retain the copyright of an image he/she takes, your legal recourses can be limited if your copyright photo is not registered. If any of you subscribe to Kelby Training, Jack Reznicki and his lawyer have an excellent segment covering just about everything you'd want to know about photography copyrights.

One other thing you can do to see if a picture of yours has been stolen is to use Google image search. You can actually upload one of your photos, and Google will perform a search to see if it can find any duplicates on the web. It also finds similar images, but I haven't figured out what characteristics it uses in determining what "similar" is.

[Allmost]

isnt that for "public" images ?

what if you make it "private" and password protected ? do they still have the right to copy it ?

[Fishypapa]

isnt that for "public" images ?

what if you make it "private" and password protected ? do they still have the right to copy it ?

I did see something about marking them private and that the above policy does not apply. That being said though the also say that even if an image is marked private and you share it with anyone (like posting to this site) then you've opened it up. I'll get the specifics and post them.

Chris

[Allmost]

ohh now thats no good ! I didnt know that ...

but thats for you professional gys ... can someone copy my images so I feel good ? lol haha

gonna try to host them on my own servers now on. thanks for the thread.

[JaYbIrD1969]

I never wanted to plaster my pics with a huge watermark across the middle, but I may start.

[jroovers]

Interesting timing on this thread. This week I noticed that a few photographs I had taken ended up on websites for commercial purposes.

This photograph ended up here:

http://www.incredibleaquarium.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=31_45_61&products_id=1101

I took some pictures for Bill at IA, and he has now stamped the photo I took with "Incredible Aquarium". I offered to take some shots of his tank for him, and when giving him the photos, he posted them on his thread here on RC and gave me credit. When giving the photos to him, I never made it clear what the agreement was in terms of photo credit or commercial use. Nor did I watermark them. He has stamped it and is using it on his site.

I also took some shots for dvanacker here on RC to be used for his tank of the month feature. I saw that this week these images ended up on this website, now that he has struck up a commercial relationship with them. He is a good friend of mine and I had no problem taking the shots for him. I don't know or have never met the people that are now using these shots on their site.

http://www.madjellycorals.com/

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae286/jroovs/Darryls%20Tank%20Oct%202012/DarrylsTOTMPhotos-19.jpg (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/jroovs/media/Darryls%20Tank%20Oct%202012/DarrylsTOTMPhotos-19.jpg.html)

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae286/jroovs/Darryls%20Tank%20Oct%202012/DarrylsTOTMPhotos-8.jpg (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/jroovs/media/Darryls%20Tank%20Oct%202012/DarrylsTOTMPhotos-8.jpg.html)

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae286/jroovs/Darryls%20Tank%20Oct%202012/DarrylsTOTMPhotos-17.jpg (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/jroovs/media/Darryls%20Tank%20Oct%202012/DarrylsTOTMPhotos-17.jpg.html)

In the end, I don't really care that these images are being used on these sites. I provided the shots to them and never made it clear what the parameters were. It is their tank and their fish/coral. That said, it is a bit surprising to be browsing and then see one of your shots on such a site without anyone at least first asking if it is ok. In my opinion, it walks the fine line of plagerism, passing off someone else's work as your own. I'm currently working on a Master's degree and they take that stuff pretty seriously in the academic world.

I do the photography part as a hobby, for the fun of it, and I enjoy it. In the future, when taking pictures of other people's tanks, I'm going to specifically ask that they not use the pictures for commercial purposes unless they have asked my permission first. I'm also going to ensure I embed my name in the metadata of such photos.

[DNA]

I have found dozens of my reef pictures on commercial sites around the world.
Not a single retailer has contacted me, asked for permission or payed for usage.
Some of these are big names in the industry. Currently I'm looking into going after a few of them.

Also I've found hundreds of copies on non commercial sites. I'm "ok" with that, but they never ask and usually don't give me credits.
Only about 5 have asked for permission, all for educational use and that has been granted free of charge.

Not to forget Reef Central and Reefkeeping. They always ask and have never been denied and never charged.
I don't know how it goes with them today. Are they a corporation with huge income or just a non profit chat-board?

[leveldrummer]

Honestly, I would feel honored if someone tried to take my pictures and post them around. I would feel a little slighted if someone was going to take an image of mine and attempt to use it to make money, but I really dont see any incedent of that happening. (maybe someone put together a coral calender, or a magazine, but what else)

I could see this being a problem for any artists that post original material of paintings or prints somewhere, but certaintly they are using better mediums than photobucket to spread their images around.

[JaYbIrD1969]

Honestly, I would feel honored if someone tried to take my pictures and post them around. I would feel a little slighted if someone was going to take an image of mine and attempt to use it to make money, but I really dont see any incedent of that happening. (maybe someone put together a coral calender, or a magazine, but what else)

I could see this being a problem for any artists that post original material of paintings or prints somewhere, but certaintly they are using better mediums than photobucket to spread their images around.

Its going to be hard for someone to pirate your pictures off photobucket and make any money due to the reduced size of the file. Not too many people wanting to buy a 5x7 print. They are suseptbale to being used for advertisements. I bet if you saw one of your pictures being used and claiming credit, it would twist your nipple a bit. It would mine.

[Fishypapa]

I bet if you saw one of your pictures being used and claiming credit, it would twist your nipple a bit. It would mine.

This has happened to me before. I did some photography at the university I worked at and they used it on their site with permission. Well, a few months afterward, I happened to discover that a local car dealership was ALSO using that same image on it's website to sell cars. I immediately demanded that it be removed on threat of suit for copyright violation. They did but never even got so much as an apology from them.

[tektite]

Happens to me a bit too, regarding my macroalgae images. Found several sites using my images as their product photos.

Does anyone know of sites that allow sharing/embedding but protect copyright?

[jroovers]

Happens to me a bit too, regarding my macroalgae images. Found several sites using my images as their product photos.

Does anyone know of sites that allow sharing/embedding but protect copyright?

Flickr

[tektite]

LOL, no way, they're the worst! Read this:

http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2008/07/07/how-every-flickr-photo-ended-up-on-sale-this-weekend/

[jroovers]

LOL, no way, they're the worst! Read this:

http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2008/07/07/how-every-flickr-photo-ended-up-on-sale-this-weekend/

Lol, I guess I was way off! I read that and my head is spinning... can you put that into layman's terms?

Maybe in the end there is no safe hosting site? Does SmugMug and other similar sites have better copyright protection.

[Fishypapa]

Happens to me a bit too, regarding my macroalgae images. Found several sites using my images as their product photos.

Does anyone know of sites that allow sharing/embedding but protect copyright?

Really the only way to keep it from being used is to include a watermark. Unfortunately, like everything, the tradeoff is not being as spectacular a photo as it could be however watermarks are VERY difficult to remove, even for a photoshop expert.

[tektite]

I'm looking into smugmug now, from the clientele they cater to I would hope they have better policies!

Since finding my images being used, I've included a watermark on all my images, plus only putting 800 x 600 px saved at 8 jpg up online.

[JaYbIrD1969]

Well, in light of the information Ive learned from this thread, my pictures from now forward are going to appear like this ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/browny-Copy_zps9541217e.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/browny-Copy_zps9541217e.jpg.html)

[jroovers]

Well, in light of the information Ive learned from this thread, my pictures from now forward are going to appear like this ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/browny-Copy_zps9541217e.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/browny-Copy_zps9541217e.jpg.html)

Nicely done! :thumbsup:

[tektite]

Good start, best thing is to make sure the copyright goes through an area of high detail. Harder to remove. Also only posting small images. Took me 1 min to remove that stamp in photoshop to a degree that no one would ever know it was there.

[IPT]

No doubt - I did this at work on an old laptop with PS CS (the original version) - about 1 min or two. Didn't even smooth it out at all. With a tablet and a decent PS version piece of cake. Though the image would need to be slightly altered unless they were side by side you'd never know. If they really want they'll get it. It's just a matter of making it not worth their while. Sadly you usually need to really disfigure the image to make it hard to use.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk319/IPTalaska/RC%20forum/browny-Copy__zps8e2ab863.jpg (http://s283.photobucket.com/user/IPTalaska/media/RC%20forum/browny-Copy__zps8e2ab863.jpg.html)

[Fishypapa]

True. I could remove a watermark if I wanted to (been using photoshop professionally for 15 years so I know a trick or two) but would suggest to anyone had had a truly spectacular photo that they actually register the copyright and not just rely on it being implied. It's a much stronger ground for a suit if it ever came to that. Bigger damage rewards too.

[JaYbIrD1969]

That's it! The photography forum that we know and love is changed forever! Gone the way of the Dodo. Pixelated thumbnails is what's on tap ����

[eidels]

http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/eidels/IMG_0188_zps87938d87.jpg (http://s1299.photobucket.com/user/eidels/media/IMG_0188_zps87938d87.jpg.html)