Copyright Infringement

(A picture that got more than 130 like / reblogged comments on Tumblr.

Sadly, our watermark had been cropped out on purpose.)

Yesterday, I still had no idea which one of my ideas for blog posts I would use next. But then, Erica published a post on a subject which was on my list as well. When I tried to formulate a comment for her blog, I almost wrote a complete post. So, today's topic is copyright infringement.

Over time, several of Ludwig's and my pictures have been used by fellow bloggers, which made me very happy and always went along with the reposting blogger providing a link to our original post. But it was only some weeks ago that I became aware that some of our pictures had been reblogged on places I hadn't previously heard about. So, I started a test, using a new feature of Google Image Search. With said feature, one can search for pictures using the link to the image one wants to look for. Google Image Search doesn't find every copy, but it works quite well. It not only finds copies that are a 100 per cent match, but also cut-outs and slightly altered versions of the picture one is looking for.

Most of the hits I had were on Tumblr blogs. I usually don't look at those because pure picture blogs don't do much for me. But in light of my new findings I became curious, and so I screened several Tumblr blogs for our and other familiar pictures. Quite frankly, the result was a bit frustrating. And I am not talking about the fact that the content of some of the sites where our pictures had been reblogged and some of the comments on the pictures made me cringe a bit.

(Severe pictures are reposted often - what a surprise!)

What I am talking about is that most of the time, no credit was given to the original photographer or blogger. There were some very nice exceptions from that rule, which made me smile and definitely deserve to be mentioned here! Some other Tumblr bloggers at least left the watermarks in the pictures when pictures were watermarked. But, sadly, I also found many Tumblr blogs where watermarks of the original sources had obviously been removed from pictures I knew well. I went, hey, that's from Russians Slaves / Her First Punishment, hey, that's Amelia Jane Rutherford, this picture is from Wild Party 2 by Lupus... And so on.

Honestly, I don't get that. I can understand that people might be careful about linking to the original source when they are posting the occasional vanilla picture on a kinky blog. It stands to reason that many people would not like it when their photos turn up on adult-themed blogs. On the rare occasions when I use pictures from the vanilla web, I don't use any pictures showing people's faces, and 95 percent of the pictures I use are from Wikipedia and therefore published under a free licence (I don't explicitly mention the names of the photographers in that case because I don't know whether they want their names to be associated with a kinky blog).

But for the majority of the Tumblr pictures I am talking about here, this problem doesn't even occur. Most spanking bloggers and spanking film producers won't get mad or throw lawsuits around when bloggers are using their pictures. On the contrary, they are happy about the word-of-mouth, and their only requirement for letting others use their pictures is that proper credit is given. If someone likes a photo well enough to post it, typing a link can't be too much of an effort, right? Cropping out watermarks certainly doesn't seem too much of an effort for some people!

(Another example for the popularity of severe marks.)

The funny (or sad) thing is that there seems to be a code of honour between Tumblr bloggers – they reblog pictures and give credit to the Tumblr blogger who was the first one to post a certain picture instead of opening a new thread. But there doesn't seem to be any understanding that it would be nice to show those who have created the photos in the first place (and often invested a lot of time in doing so) the same kind of respect. The problem is, even those Tumblr bloggers who don't crop out watermarks and who are generally open to posting links to the original source when asked to do so seem to assume that it is the job of those who have taken pictures to find out where their photos have been used without their permission and to send requests about links being provided. In other words, the original creator of the picture is supposed to do all the work.

I guess one could say that I definitely waste too much time on this. But, you know, I sometimes invest hours in taking and editing certain pictures. Often these pictures go along with a story that means a lot to me. In addition to that, it's me in those pictures and they are often very personal. Consequently, it makes me very upset when people who obviously like to look at those pictures don't even have the courtesy to post a simple link. The first thing I did was to replace our old pictures which didn't have watermarks with watermarked ones.

(I nearly froze off my toes for that one.)

Being the INTJ type that I am, I have also developed a consistent strategy of how to deal with situations in which our pictures are being reposted elsewhere. Rainer, who recently wanted to use one of our pictures on his forum, was very kind and asked us for our permission first. In that context, I set up the following rules for the use of our pictures: Generally, Ludwig and I are completely okay with our pictures being used on other spanking blogs and forums. There are four preconditions, though: 1. no use on commercial sites or for commercial events, 2. in case the pictures are used in a context that hasn't got anything to do with our original post, it must be clear that we are not connected with the site content, 3. credit must be given (leaving the watermark in the picture is enough as a basic requirement, if a source is explicitly mentioned, like on Tumblr blogs, it must be the original source) and 4. online use only, no printed media. Maybe I'm going to add a paragraph about copyright infringement to our sidebar in the near future.

Consequently, my strategy for Tumblr blogs is the following one: When I find one of our old pictures, which didn't have a watermark in the first place, on a Tumblr site, I ask the Tumblr blogger who started the thread to provide a link. My request has always been granted so far, which shows that the majority of Tumblr bloggers surely doesn't have any intention to upset anyone. But the problem is that the link doesn't show up in the reblogs (at least not in those that were made earlier). And, as Erica also explained in her post, one can't add a comment to the thread. At least not so easily (you can only like or reblog a picture). So, I got myself a Tumblr blog which I use exclusively in order to reblog our pictures and add a comment with a link to our original post. This link then shows up in the comment thread. I also reblog pictures that are watermarked and add a link to the original post as well. As a result, I now from time to time see people popping over either from my Tumblr site or from another Tumblr blog whose owner I have asked to provide a link to our blog.

(Another picture where the watermark had been cropped out.)

What makes me really angry, though, is when a Tumblr blogger has obviously cropped out an existing watermark. If I find one of our pictures where the watermark has been removed on purpose, it makes me so upset that I inform the blog owner about the copyright infringement and tell them to delete the picture. So far, my request has always been accepted. But, unfortunately, that doesn't solve the problem! Because it is only the original post that is deleted, not the picture itself. Which means that one would have to tell all those who reblogged the picture to delete it as well. There is an easier way, though. One can send an e-mail to the Tumblr support and they delete the picture. So far, they have helped me twice and they were always fast and very kind.

On a funny note: My image search also revealed that a small online magazine which mostly writes about celebrities but also about topics like Star Trek, comics and kink had published an article about our blog. Unfortunately for us, they singled out our worst fun clip to write about – Dachshunds in Space (grrr)! But overall it is a nice little article and a rather kink-friendly one, given that we are talking about a – more or less – mainstream magazine. Well, and given that the magazine is described as a "source for unique entertainment and celebrity news", I assume this means that Ludwig and I are officially celebrities now! Okay, or maybe it just means that our blog offers some unique entertainment. I think I can live with that explanation, too.