Last night, in case you were on Mars and failed to notice, there was a Perigee (opposite Apogee), something resembling, but not actually, #supermoon.
Having recently added 100mm to my telescopic lens, this seemed like a good time to get out there and 'Capture the Moon', as I posted on Twitter last night, after lugging the tripod around town on my scooter, looking for the perfect spot.
5 shots were then posted on Internet.
This morning Jackie alerted me to the NZHerald website, where two of my photos had turned up in their gallery 'Capturing the Super Moon'. Uh-huh. Good to know.
So I looked, and sure enough they'd posted two of my pictures, one wrongly attributed, and both without permission.
Then I posted this;
Seemed an innocent enough thing to do at the time. But it started something, and soon I had a number of retweets, new followers (thanks) and some media savvy people (including of course Russell, Sacha and a few others on here) encouraging me to do something about it.
What can I do about it, I asked myself?
Then the Herald apologised, offered to fix it, and asked, retrospectively, for permission. Which I granted. Hell, they mentioned our blog! What's a boy to do? (Although at this moment they are no longer there).
So what?
Well, photographs, like poetry, books, writing on your own blog, and all that other stuff is... I don't even want to use the term... copyright to the author/photographer/artist, is it not? This, to my knowledge, is not changed by the fluidity of modern social media, or the fact many news outlets rely on people's desire for fame over fortune. Which is particularly true when you're not making a living out of it. 'Hey, I'm in the Herald!'
But many of our friends do try to make a living out of it. And several have had their images taken and re-used by profit-making media outlets without even a credit. In my opinion we owe it to them, and others who struggle with earning a living from their craft, to make a bit of noise when this sort of thing happens.
What do you think?
ETA: If you've got any more photos of the 'Super Moon' [sic], please post them in the comments. Just make sure they are yours.
And could the irony police please sit down.
