Chieka on Boing Boing TV
Left: Chieka models her AFDB
Right: Chieka on Boing Boing TV
Copyright must be the most misunderstood aspect of life online. Many people feel (wrongly) that what they see online is theirs for the taking. In my role as Community Manager at Flickr, I’ve received angry missives from people post DMCA takedown along the the lines of “but I found it on the internet, it’s free!”. Well, no it’s not.
I love Creative Commons. I embraced this evolution of copyright very early on. It’s trying to find a way for individuals to share their work in ways that they are comfortable with. Given that my photos are shared here and on Flickr under Creative Commons it’s always interesting to me to see where my work turns up. My photo of Chieka in her aluminum foil beanie has been included in this Boing Boing TV clip that dramatizes spam.
I have a couple of thoughts about the inclusion:
1) I initially thought that Boing Boing was using the work uncredited. I’d viewed the video on a 3rd party site. Upon going to the source, there is credit in text under the video itself. I don’t think this is good enough. Given that Boing Boing TV can be embedded by 3rd parties, that accompanying information isn’t along for the ride.
2) Chieka in her beanie is licensed as “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic“. I would say that Boing Boing TV is a commercial endeavor. Don’t the bits air on Virgin America? That along with the ad driven site classify Boing Boing TV as a commercial. Am I wrong? Otherwise, I would think that “no derivatives” would preclude the reshaping and sparkles.
What am I going to do about it? Nothing. We’ve all recently seen how issues around use of work and the respect owed to the creator can take on a life of their own. I don’t want to particularly engage with any form of mob rule around a crappy phone cam shot of my chihuahua in a tin foil hat. And sadly, I don’t feel that Boing Boing would care all that much. They are a force unto themselves.
Here’s what I’d like to see: those using Creative Commons need to work harder to respect the work of those who are licensing their photos in this new way. There’s no greater way for a project like this to fail if people don’t take the time to do the right thing. Pick photos with the right kind of license. Don’t assume that a Creative Commons license of any flavour it carte blanche. It’s not. Take the time to credit the work in in a way that is respectful to the creators. If you’re making a video, put the credits at the end. If people continually see their photos misused, they’re likely to abandon the project altogether and that would be a great shame.
Now go make yourself a tin foil hat.
UPDATE: 6:52 PM PACIFIC 03/06/08 — it looks like Boing Boing TV has pulled the image of Chieka in her tin foil hat from the video, though the credit still remains on the page (I’ve copied and pasted the text below and you can see my “credit” emboldened).
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