The question comes up often of why we don’t post our photos on Instagram and only very few on Facebook, and other social media sites for that matter. Finally decided it was time to simply create a photo album on each with the following.
To me, this is clearly a rights grab by an over-zealous corporate entity. In September 2013, Facebook revealed in a white paper that at the time, they were hosting 250 billion photos on their servers, and people were uploading 350 million new photos each day! [Cooper Smith, Business Insider – September 18, 2013]
BuzzFeed has an interesting look at “How Many Photos Have Been Taken Ever?” [Hunter Schwartz, BuzzFeed.Com – September 24, 2012]
From the standpoint of this professional photographer, this is the death knoll of the stock photo industry. When, not if, Facebook decides to throw the switch, they will become the world’s largest photo agency overnight … that dos not pay for it’s content!
Facebook, and other social media sites, expect people to respect their intellectual property. Where’s the respect for fellow content creators and our rights to earn a living from our labors? Check the TOS … this applies to musicians, painters and sculptors, to anyone uploading content to social media platforms … and it’s wrong!
What do you think? As a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, the National Press Photographers Association and the Society of Environmental Journalists, I’d love to hear your comments and start a conversation on the topic.
#Editorial #RightsInfringement #SocialMedia #RightsGrab #IntellectualProperty
Roth Stock Pictures: Event Photography for the Entertainment Industry 