RE: Copyright Violation - Why it is morally wrong
Opinions are always welcome if presented in a fair and non-argumentative manner. :-)
Here is my response to your well organized answer:
I know all about supply and demand. I have had my own business for 23 years now, and have taken many business courses during that time. I understand that Stock Photography as I once knew it has gone the way of the typewriter. (I thank you for reading my #introduceyourself post to find out more about how I have been adapting to changes!) I am not doing “Business as Usual” like some of my peers. I have even joined the iPhoneography crowd and am licensing mobile phone images! I forgot to mention that in my intro However, I will point out that although typewriters are obsolete, you still have to pay if you want one – maybe big bucks because they are antiques. LOL!
I appreciate that. But copyright is also there to protect the small content provider like myself. I have been successful a few times in pursuing payment and issuing DMCA notices against websites that are hosting my stolen work. People blatantly copy my images and sell them as their own, with everyone raving about the beautiful pics!
Images of pets are particularly vulnerable to theft! In the past, a right clicked image would not be worth selling because it's use was too limited. Today that use is popular because most content is used on the web anyway. My very first copyright violation collection was for a picture of a horse that someone was using to make prints and sell on Ebay! How the heck did she manage that? Well, she was selling miniature prints for dollhouses! Getty's lawyers went after her and shut down her business, as all she was doing was selling prints of images from Getty! It does not matter even if she paid for a license. No one buys the copyright (unless in a buyout which is another story.) The license fee is for using the image and does not allow representing the image as your own and reselling it! Only I as the artist have the right to print and sell my images.
The saddest collection I made was from a Christian publishing company which paid a fee to use my image only on the book cover. However, some graphics designer decided to use the image all throughout the book and also on the back cover. I was happy they liked my image, but they did not pay the appropriate licensing fee. That was an easy one, because the company was a good client of Getty's and perhaps would not have knowingly avoided paying the correct fee in my opinion!
The most ironic one was from a bank which was using my image to promote accumulating wealth. Until I collected from them, I was not accumulating wealth. Hehe! They claimed that a newbie graphics designer was to blame for the mistake.
The poor graphics designer always gets the blame! It's up to companies to make sure their designers know how and if they can use images.
Still think I do not have the right to copyright protection?
- I can assure you that I am not hiding behind laws and the Bible! If that is the case, then shopkeepers who go after thieves are also hiding behind laws and the Bible. In any case, I don't hide behind the Bible. I read it and try to apply the commonsense rules of honor and decency. All western civilization was founded on biblical principles. You can agree or disagree about whether that should or should not be, but it is a fact of history that cannot be changed. The 10 Commandments have been used as a moral guide in all western civilization. The fact that that is now breaking down, does not change history!
And lastly, I'm not sure I totally understand why you quoted Proverbs 21:5.
Here is the NLT version : Proverbs 21:5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.
It is saying that hard work pays off and that taking shortcuts does not. I agree wholeheartedly. That's why I'm against someone TAKING my work to use. That's a shortcut that SHOULD end in poverty. Of course, the Proverbs are guidelines and they are not telling us what actually happens. The age old question is always, “Why do the evil prosper?” And that I'm afraid, is a question I have no answer for!
I thank you very much for your very long answer, and I have to excuse myself for my unusual and probably harsh and rash words. If I were forced to label myself, I would say that I am an anarchist, suspicious of every form of power directed to control people (thus against a copyright law). I very strongly believe in most christian values which are not directed to preserve the positions of power of only a few people ( e.g. the system of "church"). As a christian without a church I believe that hard work is always rewarded, not always in money, but in friendship, good relationships, knowledge, a fulfilled life, satisfaction and many other good things that are way more valuable than money. (You know that, I am sure, so who am I to lecture and unfortunately having money does not really hurt) Very often our "rewards" come from another place than we expect or where it is due. Thus "Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity" is true for me in any case.
The second part "hasty shortcuts lead to poverty" is for me the short thinking that it is ok to force people into anything, or to be angry about the outcome of a situation (e.g. a person taking your picture without mentioning you and without paying you). I could imagine that your feeling while you wrote that article made your day worse, made it poorer than it could have been.
Why I think that this interpretation could be right... easy... the whole bible is NOT about money, but about a way of living and about giving good example.
Unfortunately I, myself am sometimes far away from these words and I have to remind myself very often to rethink my own behaviour and my feelings.
I strongly believe that the evil prospers, because we forgot what "prosper" really means. Prosper means to grasp "Self" to develop conscience and morals and to live them and give example. Making laws and rules, forcing and condemming people into what WE believe is in my opinion the opposite of giving good examples.
Again I have to ask for your forgiveness, because my first answer was directed to a 25 year old photographer lost in beginning ideas of christianity and promoting state power and copyright laws, using a harsher tone than I would have, if I had met you in person ( I didn't even read the whole article at first ). As I now know that you have a quick, active and quite experienced brain, I hope I was able to explain at least parts of my perspective.
Thank you!
Pollux
I forgive you. :-)
You are right. I have been around the block a few times. My first career was as a schoolteacher; I sold real estate for a while before going back to college; i worked as a computer programmer (I programmed in Cobol); I then worked in management before going back to school again in the 90s to study photography! I worked for 2 years in a stock agency as a staff photographer before going out on my own 20 years ago.
I have also been a Christian for many, many years, and started 25 years ago on the advice of my husband to keep reading through the Bible from beginning to end. I'm not bragging about this, just establishing who I am. Reading the Bible in its total context is crucial to understanding it. It is too easy to take verses out of context and make them say what you want them to say. You have to understand what the whole book is saying.
The Bible is not as you say about a way of living or setting a good example: The Bible is about one thing - one person only, Jesus Christ. The bi-product of looking at Him and seeing who He is, is a desire to be like Him which then leads to setting an example and living a way of life that is in sync with what the Bible says. But it's not because we try; it's because the Bible changes us as we read it, and the truths become second nature to us.
You misunderstand if you think that being a Christian means you are to sit back and never be angry. Jesus showed righteous anger when he overturned the temple tables. Anger is righteous when someone has done you wrong. That does not mean that you hold a grudge forever, or think about it night and day and let it ruin your day . Perhaps that happens to you, but I do not dwell on such things. Just because I posted an article about copyright violation, does not mean I'm walking around angry all the time. Anger is not an emotion I even experience very often! I'm a very laid back kind of person. So, no! It did not ruin my day! As I said, my focus daily is on Jesus, and He works all things according to His purpose.
The bottom line is that it does not matter anyway what your opinion is, or my opinion is. I'm not going to change your mind and you are not going to change mine. What does matter is God's opinion. And He does tell us pretty clearly, "Thou shalt not steal." He does not add any exceptions to that. He does not say, "thou shalt not steal unless it is a stock image. " I did not write the book. I just follow it.
I understand that all of this sounds trivial to you, as you seem to think that it is ridiculous for me to be concerned about something so minor as lost income. However, being a Christian does not make me a wimp that sits back and is walked over! But I also understand that you are not dependent on stock photo royalties as your means of income. If you did, I can assure you that your attitude would be totally different. As I wrote in my #introduceyourself post, I have no problems with adapting to the changes as the market becomes flooded with imagery. That is fair competition. What I do have a problem with, is the attitude in today's world that says you can do whatever you want as long as you get away with it. That is what is happening - and it is wrong!
That is why I am a member of the Copyright Alliance, which is fighting to keep photographers, artists and musicians from losing the rights to their own hard earned work! The world is full of people who want something for nothing, and those fighting copyright enforcement are fighting to have the right to take anything they want and use it. I have read the comments in our Copyright Alliance posts. I know what is being said on the other side!
As for the answer to why the evil prosper, only God has that answer! Our opinion of why does not matter.
Isaiah:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (ESV)
On that comforting thought, Good- Night! :-)
Thank you very much for your forgiveness and your time creating this answer, too.
Still I have to react on some assumptions you make. For myself: I've gone to a Highschool run by benedictine monks, and my mother was a "hardcore" system christian. I, too suggest to every person to read the bible as a mean to understand what our culture is. You cannot understand literature, art, poetry, morals and many other things going on, without having read the bible. This is anything other than trivial to me and pure logic, so far.
On the meta-level it is up to any person, what to make, feel, understand about it. I am glad to hear, that you found there what you needed.
I opened myself up to this platform in a way, that I did not do anywhere else and so I somehow repeat myself when I say:
I struggle and I am dependent on every Cent I earn, here and in real life. And I am angry often. Anger is an important tool and it is rightous you speak out against people that steal.
I have the impression that you think, I somehow spoke out FOR stealing, which I did not. Stealing is bad, it's immoral and there is no doubt about it (Even if someone did not read, understood or believes in the bible)
What I said (and probably that is due to my anarchist way of thinking) is, that there are better ways to make sure, that artist, musicians, poets, writers and also photographers earn their fair share. Using laws is a way, but outdated and creating at least as much harm as they are helpful. Using the bible or morals doesn't affect nonbelievers or amoral people.
To my knowing Christ used exactly ONE TIME in the whole new testament aggression to force someone, when he "kicked out" the bankers of his fathers temple. (one of my favourite parts of the NT)
Also, I am very glad to hear, that your day was not ruined. Most people would carry that anger for days and feed it (I myself tend to do this sometimes).
tl;dr
I think we have to change ourselves and our ways of doing things to make sure that content creators get their fair share (and multiple other things, that COULD be changed this way) instead of relying on a created force outside of ourselves ( state, laws, police, even morals).
Thanks again for your good reply. It's very difficult to get a feel about where people are really coming from in written dialog like this - no body language or facial expressions to read. I do get the feeling though, that you are a genuinely caring person.
I realize that non-Christians are not going to be affected by what I had to say. You are so right about that. My post was intended for the Christian community and not the community at large, though.
Non-Christians couldn't care less about what the Bible says, but for Christians it's God's Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth! LOL! Always doing what is right is not easy, but when we know that we have done something wrong, then it is up to us to correct that wrong.
That's why it was tagged "Christian." It was written as a post for Christians to read, as sadly I'm seeing the illegal usage of images in the Christian community too. If the reason is ignorance, then I intend to educate.
Have a wonderful Thursday!