Blog: You can get Sued for using pics on your blog
Feel free to read the article, it's very thought-provoking, and, in my case, made me feel like a moron. To gather it all up and shove it in a tidy little box, if you use pics that aren't yours on your blog there is a chance (no matter how slim) that you can get yourself in trouble from the original photographer or site that you got the pics from.
Some of you may be thinking, "Well, duh K-lee. What are you stupid? Where've you been living? Under a rock?" and I can completely understand those sentiments. But the problem is a) I didn't really think I was a stupid person, b) I haven't been living under a rock (or at least not completely), and c) yes, I do know about copyright since I'm an author, have not been living under a rock and am not stupid.So now you may ask "what's the problem then?" The problem is I can't decide if it's worth going through all my entries and deleting all the pics I used, not to mention getting rid of all my character inspirations on my main page. I'm kind of attached to those pics and a big part of my blog is posting pretty pictures for myself and others to enjoy (even my header is not my photo so what would I use for that?). Or is the easier decision just to delete this blog and start again?
Another problem is I don't really understand what pictures I can or cannot use, except my own (please say hi to Chili way up in the corner - she and the pic are mine). I'm an all-or-nothing kind of girl, something I've tried for years to change (it's part of my disorder as well so it's not entirely an issue of my choice) so for me rather than trying to figure out what I can and cannot post, I'm thinking it's better to just not blog at all or just use this as strictly a writing blog.
I guess I can still post youtube videos - as far as I know - and I can still talk about what I'm writing and what I'm doing but do I go through and delete all the entries that already contain pictures. Or do l leave then and just hope they never get found. As for my home page, I can't really think of anything else to put there besides my books, my wips and a few links. I'm not the most exciting person and there just aren't any men I can go out and take pictures of so I can post them on my blog.And it goes further than just my blog - what about my LiveJournal and FaceBook and Tumblr and how about Twitter? Do all those have to be cleared out as well. Does this also mean when someone shares something on Facebook and you in turn share it, that's bad too? Considering all the problems in the real world, it seems like such a silly thing to spend so much time pondering and worrying about, but in my little world it's important.
This is nothing more than a rambling mess but I'm happy to get it at least partially off my chest. I guess I should just get back to writing and editing, plus I have some word counts I can update on my main page. I can always make these silly decisions later - and hope I don't get sued in the meantime. Have a good week friends.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention my European football story was accepted for the Olympic anthology. :)
Congrats on the acceptance. As for the rest, do what you think is best. To be honest I'm in mania right now so I'm trying to just you know not get too crazy. I'd say keep your inspirational pics on your private computer for you to look at and just be careful which pics you post in the future. Life is crazy enough, don't stress too much or you will be as nutty as me
ReplyDeleteHi K-lee! Congrats on having your story accepted. That's great news! :)
ReplyDeleteThis week I have seen several other posts about the topic of blogs and the pictures used on them. I also read the article. It really is confusing. I don't know what to tell you. You would like to think it would be highly unlikely that you'd be sued, but there's always that chance, I guess. There sure are a lot of blogs out there that use pictures. I wonder what they are going to do? I hate to think that everyone has to go back and delete everything. What a pain in the a** that would be! I would miss your blog, but you have to do what's best for you. :(
I've heard a little bit about the crap going on in the m/m community. I'm pretty much out of the loop on that and that's how I like to be. Life is way too short to waste time acting like that.
Take care. :)
I just did a post about this today too. What's worrying me is that Google Images will show a photographer where their photos are. What if I'm at the top of the list? I'm going through all my posts and removing the photos that aren't mine already (which I think is all of 1). My Tumblr's gone -- I think that one's less likely to get me in trouble, but I don't want to take the chance.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just fear of being sued that's making me do this because I'm also a little sick that I'm basically pirating photos. I've been adamant about not pirating ebooks, but then I do the same thing with photos? Ew. I don't want to be a hypocrite.
Congrats on the acceptance of your story! That's so good to hear.
ReplyDeleteThe discussions in the mm world will never end. I prefer not to get mixed up in all that drama. It's like Lisa said, life is too short to waste time. And there are more important things in the world (without wanting to hurt or affront someone).
I've read a few articles on the photo piracy subject and this is not new. I wouldn't know what to do, but I think, for the pics I would use in the future, I would check if these are not copyright protected and check with the "owner" of the pic.
Hugs