Sunset Splashing at the Beach

Sunset Splashing at the Beach
Originally uploaded by fenriq

Twitter: All Photos Are NOT Belong To Us

This is not Twitter's property.

Recently there has been a bit of a furor over a post by one Scott Bourne, a fairly famous (and famously abrasive) photographer, regarding Twitter's Terms of Service in regards to ownership rights, exclusivity and content. Basically, the post said that Twitter's ToS agreement followed Facebook's way, way over reaching power grabs, that any media posted across Twitter's site becomes the property of Twitter to do with what they like including selling them and keeping the profits for themselves.

In the case of a tweet about finding a kitty cat in a box by your front door this is not such a big deal. But in the case of someone making their living (or supplementing it) with digital media such as a photographer, musician or videographer, this could be an absolute game changer. I am merely a semi-pro photographer and there's no way I'm signing over any rights to my photos to anyone without proper compensation.

As usually happens in these cases, the investigative photographer got it wrong. Badly wrong. And I'm reminded of why I stopped following Scott Bourne on Twitter. And why I continue to follow and appreciate posts by Petapixel, who breaks down the post, the ToU and why digital media types need not worry (besides the fact that Twitter isn't anywhere near close to being as evil and douchebaggy as Facebook is).

The crux of the issue regards the definition of content. Bourne presumed content to mean any media crossing Twitter's servers. The reality is that content, according to Twitter, is anything stored on Twitter servers, that is, tweets and possibly digital media at some point in the future (apparently there was a short lived Twitter photo hosting service, yes, Twitter does have rights to anything posted there).

Here, go and read Michael's (that's Petapixel's real name) post: Twitter Photo Rights Controversy is Much Ado About Nothing which was partially compiled from ReadWriteWeb's Twitter Gets to Use Your Photos, for Free? (Updated)

This issue highlights another problem, that is that Scott Bourne refuses to allow any discussion that isn't in complete agreement with him. That is, agree with him or he will block you, probably delete your comments and pretend like he's still right. His perspective is wrong and his attitude is misguided though his intentions are still good (protecting his intellectual property from dilution and royalty free distributions).

In the end, I'll keep posting links to my photos I post (and host) on Flickr or other sites.

Getting After It

Getting After It
Originally uploaded by fenriq

A rare non-Nande dog pic on the beach. This is Cinder, my buddy Mike's hound chasing birds or just having fun in the shallow surf yesterday evening.

Was a wonderful evening!

Things A Photographer Will Never Learn In School

8 Things A Photographer Will Never Learn In School

Wish I'd seen this a few years ago when I was putting together a photography business on the side. It would have saved me a lot of wasted effort.

But it will still be useful moving forward.

Bubble Sunset

Bubble Sunset
Originally uploaded by khosey1

Truly beautiful photography by Kimberly Hosey. This photo is simply stunning in every way!

Seascape Tiltshift Miniature

Seascape Tiltshift Miniature
Originally uploaded by fenriq

Might have posted this already but I like it so much I'm just going to go ahead and post it again. Not that it really matters since IP Photography isn't visited very often by anyone (heck, I don't even visit the site very often, I just post to it every once in a great while).

Leap

Leap
Originally uploaded by fenriq

One of my favorite photos from a recent trip up to the snow (which is becoming a tradition) over the holiday break. This is one of those photos that gets better and better the longer you look at it.

Some of the things I really like about it, the matched colors of background and Grady's outfit, the stop action moment where Grady is clear off the ground and about to land in the fresh untouched snow, his shadow off to the right, the streak of red on his boots.

Really it just makes me smile to see my little big guy having such a great time in the snow (and knowing that he melted down about a half hour later which forced us to pack up sooner than expected).