Out of the blue, I received an email the other day, asking: “Why do you think it’s okay to post other peoples copyright pictures on your tumblr yet cry when someone uses a story of yours elsewhere”. Not the most charming of notes, it must be said, from someone from whom I’ve never previously heard. But I still thought it merited a reply, as it touched on an interesting issue. Here’s what I said in response:
Hiya
To the best of my ability, I never post pictures that are marked with (c), ‘copyright’ or indeed any text / name. That’s a very deliberate thing, for exactly the reason you say. And it’s a very different approach to almost every other Tumblr site I see. I do repost unmarked photos – that’s how Tumblr works!
If I have inadvertently done so with one of yours, please do let me know and I’ll delete it when I’m next at my PC.
As for my stories: they’re all over the web by now, and I’ve always willingly granted free permission to anyone who’s asked to use them on free sites. The whole point of writing – and publishing – huge amount of free content is to get it read! I’ve only ever objected where people have used my content (which is always clearly marked as being my copyrighted material) to make money for themselves on commercial / paid sites, or where people have passed off my writing as their own.
Hope that clarifies?
Best wishes
Abel
And I think that’s a fair approach. I’ve chosen a ‘theme’ for my Tumblr site that allows anyone to look at an ‘audit trail’ to see who else has posted it, and where it originated from. And my only other rule is that I don’t post photos of people I know personally! But I’m interested in others’ views: is managing my Tumblr site as ethically as I can the right thing to do, or is the whole Tumblr concept so flawed as to be unacceptable?
(Needless to say, the sender of the original email didn’t bother acknowledging my reply. But then the sort of person to send a note like that wouldn’t, would they?)
Hi Abel,
Well, you seem pretty fair and ethical to me, but peoples’ views are subjective and always vary.
This doesn’t in any way go against you personally, Abel, but I am very critical towards Tumblr because of the constant copyright infringement that takes place there. Being someone whose pictures are often used without proper credit on Tumblr sites, I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of your approach.
The thing is, all photos are generally copyrighted, unless they are explicitly published under a free license. And even that license usually requires that the creator of the image is credited by name. But that’s exactly what people usually don’t do on Tumblr. Giving credit to the Tumblr blogger who was the first one to post a certain photo seems to be a code among Tumblr bloggers. But giving credit to the person who put lots of work into making a certain picture, who maybe published it in a certain context and who maybe is also depicted in the picture is something most Tumblr bloggers don’t care about, which makes me very sad and angry.
Today, I have to put watermarks on all of our pictures to make it less easy for people to use them without giving proper credit and under the false pretense that they thought the pictures were free because there was no copyright sign on them. But even then, instead of using the watermarked pictures and giving proper credit in the source link (which would be totally fine with me and I think for many others as well), Tumblr bloggers often systematically crop out the watermarks in order to make it more difficult for people to find out where the photos have been taken from. Others then reblog the pictures, pretending that they couldn’t know better because the original poster didn’t mention where the picture came from.
The usual approach among Tumblr bloggers seems to be: „I assume that all the pictures which I post are free. If I have posted a picture that belongs to you tell me and I will delete it.“ I find this approach, which systematically supports copyright infringement, highly unfair, because in practice it means that I, the creator of the image, have to spend a lot of time searching the web for my own copyrighted pictures and having to ask people to delete them. Given that I put a lot of work into taking pictures and that I even publish them for free and only ask people to provide a link to the original source, that makes me very frustrated at times.
I have written a post about copyright infringement on Tumblr before and I will write another post about it soon, because I have come across several even more impudent examples of copyright infringement recently (even someone who posted one of our free private pictures with an affiliate link to a paysite in order to make money).
Fortunately, there was one recent example which proved to me that Tumblr bloggers can be very responsible as well. A blog called „Captain Posterior“ posted two of our pictures including the watermark and linked to my original post. Since the pictures have been posted, several people have come over to our blog to see where the pictures came from and to learn more about their background story. In my opinion, making sure where pictures came from originally (which has become easier thanks to the Google image search function) and giving proper credit like that is the only really ethical way of operating a Tumblr blog.
Thanks to both of you.
Kaelah: as ever, a long and detailed, thoughtful contribution. Thank you. I’ve certainly never posted any of your photos, although there clearly are a lot of them around on Tumblr.
Some of the behaviours you state – deliberately removing copyright notices, or using your images to link to paid sites – are simply completely unethical. I see direct parallels in that to the comments I made in my post about the times when I object to people misusing my stories. And I do get frustrated when I see the odd photo I’ve taken during scenes, which play partners have put on their own blogs, appearing despite being clearly marked as copyright.
You are certainly legally correct that copyright is something inherent, and so images shouldn’t need to be marked specifically with a (c) notice. I do see something of a difference in practice, though, between images that people have clearly chosen to protect by adding a copyright notice and those that they’ve published – somewhere, sometime – without any such protection. Hence the approach I take when choosing images to reblog.
And I do see a moral difference between being the original poster / uploader of content, and simply reblogging (or linking to it) as I do.
So perhaps, along with the other 77m bloggers on the site, I’m on slightly shaky ground. But I do think I’m making more effort to honour copyright than pretty much any other naughty Tumblr site I’ve seen, so I’ll still sleep relatively comfortably at night!
Abel, I know that you don’t mean to do any harm and that you try to operate your Tumblr blog with an ethical approach. I also know that you do not (or at least try not to) post any pictures of people you know. Still in my opinion the „if another person has posted the picture first, I don’t care where it originally came from“ approach is very risky and the reason why so much copyright infringement on Tumblr is possible and why people crop out watermarks in order to have “their” pictures reblogged.
For instance, I have taken a quick look at your site and within minutes found several photos from Lupus Pictures as well as photos from Her First Punishment, Real Life Spankings and even Pandora’s Dreams of Spanking (the picture even shows Pandora). There were several other pictures where I recognized the tops from professional sites or have the strong suspicion that they are from professional shoots for other reasons, but don’t know the sites well enough to tell you where the pictures come from (I think several of them might be from Girls Boarding School). In all cases the watermarks have been cropped out on purpose by the person who was the first to publish these photos (or maybe that person had also taken them from another place where the watermark had already been cropped out). I would say roughly 80 per cent of the pictures on your blog which show severe marks are from professional producers. And that in my opinion is the risk you (and of course many others) take when reblogging pictures without questioning their origin.
Again, interesting thoughts and thanks for sharing. I’m certainly open to practical suggestions, but a policy of not sharing anything unless the original poster has demonstrated ownership of the copyright (or provided evidence that they have permission to reproduce the image) just isn’t practical and isn’t how Tumblr works.
So the only alternative is to close the site. Whilst there are 77 million other Tumblr blogs out there, it’d be a shame if one person that does try to do the right things as far as is feasible were to feel victimised into closure. I guess it’d be useful to have an Ethical Tumblring Charter or suchlike, but we’ve probably debated it long enough here now!
If you have a moment, do let me know where you noticed photos of Pandora or from her site; I’d certainly not want them on mine and would delete them straight away. Yes, I may make the odd mistake, but it’s not for lack of trying. And it’s probably worth stating that the “80% of photos of severe marks” probably comprise only a very, very low percentage of the photos on a site where those sorts of images form a relatively small part of the content.
And, of course, it’s perhaps worth stating that this isn’t a new debate. The old ABPES newsgroup – the first place I ever found spanking images – could, for example, have been accused of exactly the same thing!
Good debate. Thanks for your input: as ever, you bring really interesting perspectives.
Maybe putting watermarks right in the middle of all the pictures so that it can’t be deleted is the answer. Pity, though, it would rather mar them!.
@ Abel:
The picture from Dreams of Spanking is currently on page 22 (http://spankingwriters.tumblr.com/image/36090005757). As for practical suggestions: Mine would be to take a minute before reblogging pictures to enter the URL into the Google image search function. And if it turns out that the picture is from a professional producer or from a private blogger who wants to be credited, just post the original picture including the watermark and link to the original source instead of using the cropped one. I don’t think that any producer or private spanking blogger has anything against the usage of their (preview) pictures as long as proper credit is given. You are of course right, the pictures with marks are only a small percentage of your pictures. But I think many of those which show an actual spanking are from professional sites or from amateur spanking bloggers who would apreciate crediting as well. It’s not about not posting such pictures, in my opinion it is just about giving proper credit. The very same thing you ask for when someone uses one of your stories.
@ Ordalie:
You are right, putting a watermark right in the middle of a picture would be the only way to prevent people cropping it out. I have already thought about doing something like that. But then I don’t want to mess up my own pictures just because some people don’t have any respect for copyrights. The watermarks on the side are bad enough already, but they are absolutely necessary because otherwise people see it as an invitation to use the pictures without giving credit.
Thanks for the link there, Kaelah – I certainly don’t want that on the site and will delete it when I get home tomorrow, as I can’t from my phone.
Checking every image on Google isn’t practical. But I’ll certainly be more wary of anything that looks professional than I already am.
And I suspect there’s also an onus on those who are really worried about their images to mark them clearly and prominently.
As for my stories… as I said at the outset, it’s only those who use them for commercial means or actively claim to have written them that bother me. There’s no comparison at all there with what I do on my Tumblr!
One more comment, as I’ve been pondering this during the day today. There’s an interesting thought here about how those who choose to make money from their kink by involving themselves in it professionally somehow think that their needs are more important than those of us who enjoy it on an amateur basis. Especially where kink is merely pocket money for those concerned, rather than a significant part of their living, that’s an interesting concept.
Actually, whilst I certainly don’t judge those who profit from their kinky interests, I can’t help but think that the amateurs are probably more deserving of the moral high ground in some ways! It’s an interesting thought: one I might explore in more detail at some point – albeit any discussion would be bound to provoke lots of aggressive comments!
I missed this post. It seems I’ve been wrong when thought that reblogging the picture with watermark would be crediting. Trouble with Tumblr and other aspects of internet is that we can’t always know the origin of the pictures, videos, stories…we find and want to share our find with others. I try to correct the source for the posts I know where they are from. But that can’t always be possible. If we were only to reblog pictures etc. that are not copyrighted we wouldn’t reblog anything. How can we know which pictures are and which aren’t copyrighted? They don’t have to have watermark to be copyrighted. I am so confused now.
Very good post though!
Alias – I think Kaelah’s point is that *all* photos are inherently legally copyrighted by the person who took them, whether or not it displays a statement to that effect. So unless we have explicit permission from the owner to post, then we’re actually strictly speaking breaching copyright with every single post we make. In other words, Tumblr itself really shouldn’t exist in the way it does now to – as you say – share images one’s found attractive.
That’s an interesting question, Abel! For me, the answer is very easy. In my opinion, the needs of all spanking enthusiasts are equally important, no matter whether they are professionals or amateurs. As someone who has decided not to make any pocket money with spanking (neither through the blog nor through clips), I think that I neither have the moral high ground compared to those who earn pocket money with it nor compared to those who don’t share as much of themselves as I do.
What in my view deserves a lot of respect and protection, though, are the intimate things people are willing to share with others, no matter whether they are amateurs or professionals. That goes for pictures and videos as much as it goes for written pieces and comments.
That’s why I try to treat all these things very carefully, especially in the context of erotic kink. If a comment or post of a fellow kinkster inspires me, I link to it. If I discuss a certain comment or post critically, I tell the original writer about it and give them the link, so that they have a chance to defend their point of view. Plus, I always try not to change the meaning of anything another person has written, and I try to make sure that I quote people verbatim. Finally, if I mention, for instance, people whose work I admire but who haven’t got any connection to the world of kink, I try to make that very clear in my posts. Because I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable by being connected with an erotic fetish they don’t subscribe to.
For me, there is no difference when it comes to pictures or videos, except for the fact, that images can sometimes be even more personal in my opinion (if they depict people in intimate or vulnerable situations) and therefore deserve at least as much respect and protection.
Good to have that clarification, Kaelah; your focus on professional images / sites in your previous comment had confused me.
You and I are the same in terms of not commercialising our involvement in the spanking scene; that doesn’t for a moment suggest that we’re right and others shouldn’t.
I do *hugely* disagree with you that being photographed is somehow more personal by nature than writing a soul-searching written piece. Again, I wouldn’t judge or need to compare and produce a league table!
Abel, I am glad I managed to clarify that point! I agree with you that written pieces can be as intimate or even more intimate and personal as pictures. I think it depends on the content and the person. That’s why I said in my last comment that pictures (very intimate and personal ones) can sometimes be more intimate than pieces of writing, not always.
But I, for instance, am much more at my personal limit when posting pictures and videos than when publishing (even controversial or very intimate) posts. Maybe that’s because I am more confident about my writing and about the things I do than I am about my looks and about what people who only see a picture of me might interpret into them. Consequently, I make myself much more vulnerable when I post pictures. One thing that scares me about photos (which are usually very personal in my case, which I often put a lot of work into and which I only publish in a context with which I feel comfortable) is that people can put them in a very different context, one I am not comfortable with in my kink (for example, as you might know, I am not at all comfortable with public humiliation). I think that explains why I don’t want my pictures to be used without at least a link to the original context. Just like I wouldn’t want anyone to use a snippet of my writing and change its meaning by putting it into a completely different context.
But, as you rightfully said, for others written pieces can be even more intimate than pictures. Which is why I try to treat both with the same care and respect.
Lest I forget: I don’t think there is any reason why you shouldn’t discuss a topic just because it could be controversial, Abel! First of all, controversial discussions can be very interesting and informative. And secondly, you are a very careful and respectful writer, so I don’t expect you to discuss such a topic in a way that could insult others.
Not sure quite what you mean in your last paragraph there, Kaelah? I’ve quite often discussed controversial topics here and am always happy to have debates with folks with slightly different persepctives. I think that’s something that’s always been a feature of SW.
As for your last sentence, that surely goes without saying? I don’t think I ever have – certainly not intentionally – and wouldn’t ever see the point. I’d rather walk away from a discussion if someone was being offensive, or email them in private, than ever stooping to insulting behaviour…
Abel, I was referring to your deliberation on whether it might be interesting to discuss the topic of professional spanking enthusiasts vs amateur spanking enthusiasts in a separate post. You wrote: „It’s an interesting thought: one I might explore in more detail at some point – albeit any discussion would be bound to provoke lots of aggressive comments!“ I just wanted to encourage you to take up the topic if you like. I don’t think that your respectful style of writing will provoke lots of aggressive comments, just an interesting discussion.
That makes sense! I was meaning that the aggression would probably be directed at me from some quarters (LOL not you!!) as it sometimes does on more controversial topics. I don’t really have the heart for confrontation at the moment, so will leave it for a while!!
I’m sorry for the confusion caused by my comment, Abel. I combined my replies to two of your comments in one comment. It was only when I read your reply that I realized that this had made it totally unclear what I was referring to. Fortunately, things like that can easily be clarified through a follow-up comment.
I can understand that you are not in the mood for controversial discussions right now. I’ve had a very busy and emotional time recently which has cost me lots of energy. I wouldn’t have the energy to write a post and lead a discussion about a controversial and emotional topic right now, either. I cross my fingers for you to have some relaxing holidays and some time to recharge your batteries.