Social Sharing icon = CC License?

WirenWiren Registered Users Posts: 741 Major grins
I have a technical question for the suits... please move this to the appropriate forum if I missed my target audience.

I am going to be shooting sports for a youth league as the sole action sports photographer.

I will be selling printed images at a booth at the end of the season.

During the season, I want to increase interest by showing images online in my galleries.

In the Gallery Settings, if I allow "Social Sharing" and the prominence of folks violating Copyright practices (I don't know about the rest of you, but nobody ever asks me permission to share my posted works, they just do it), does this pretty much give off the message that it's free-share?

I want to create the ability to share via the site links so folks are free to share (and help me show off) my work and drive any potential customers to my site... the social media links are great for that.

But in doing so, I am wondering if it is wise to just make a Creative Commons license that I can put in the description of the Gallery so it is viewable as a reminder that any sharing needs to attribute the work to me.... such as: the descriptive CC license I did in this album.... http://www.prismaticimagery.com/People/Client-Files/2016-Hillsboro-Latino-Cultural

I guess I'm asking if choosing the Social Sharing button pretty much tells the world you are allowing a Creative Commons license and the link helps them attribute the work as it leads folks back to you. I am thinking the CC license in the gallery description might help push reminders for folks to give proper attribution if they share the image elsewhere.

Thanks
Lee Wiren

Comments

  • FergusonFerguson Registered Users Posts: 1,345 Major grins
    edited April 26, 2016
    I am not a lawyer, but...

    I think you are over-thinking this. People who are going to share on social media don't think about copyrights and licenses and ownership, period. If you encourage them to share, they will share. Some will be responsible and credit you, most will not. What you say on your site will sway 2% of them max.

    Will encouraging social media sharing help or hurt eventual print booth sales? No idea. But if you decide to do it, what legalese you put near the icon is only going to matter if you plan to take legal action, generally people will pay no attention.

    After all, when's the last time you read the Smugmug Terms and Conditions. Or better still, Google's before using the search engine.
  • VivPixVivPix Registered Users Posts: 62 Big grins
    edited April 26, 2016
    Hi Lee,

    We have some suggestion on how to protect your images when you share them. You can find those suggestions here.

    Two of the most effective ways to protect your images is to watermark your images and to block access to the original files. Details on how to watermark images can be found here

    You can choose not to display your high-resolution original images. To select the largest size you would like to display, go to Gallery Settings > Photo Protection -> Maximum Display Size -> select your display size there.

    When your customers order prints through SmugMug, the high-resolution original is still sent to the printer.

    Hope this helps! If you need additional help with this, just reach out to us at help@smugmug.com
    Thanks,

    Vivian
    SmugMug Hero
  • WirenWiren Registered Users Posts: 741 Major grins
    edited April 26, 2016
    VivPix wrote: »
    Hi Lee,

    We have some suggestion on how to protect your images when you share them. You can find those suggestions here.

    Two of the most effective ways to protect your images is to watermark your images and to block access to the original files. Details on how to watermark images can be found here

    You can choose not to display your high-resolution original images. To select the largest size you would like to display, go to Gallery Settings > Photo Protection -> Maximum Display Size -> select your display size there.

    When your customers order prints through SmugMug, the high-resolution original is still sent to the printer.

    Hope this helps! If you need additional help with this, just reach out to us at help@smugmug.com

    ....., thanks Viv...

    I know all of this information and employ it on my site already...... not sure my message got across here, but I appreciate the attempt at answering. If I did not already know the information, this would have been a great response for me, so thank you for that.

    The point I was trying to get across is;

    1. A Creative Commons License states (to varying degrees), go ahead and share, but you MUST give the artist the proper credit when you share the image... other allowances may apply based on the type of CC license noted.

    2. When sharing on Social Media (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, etc, etc), folks copy and repost at will without much thought.

    3. When allowing the images in the gallery to be shared (linked) to social media sites, you are basically telling the world.... "please copy and share this image, I don't mind"

    So.... my question on (which was overthought as noted by Ferguson's great response), is.... Doesn't the allowance of Social Media Linking pretty much mean you are giving a Creative Commons license....

    If using the Social Media option basically equates to a CC License, I am thinking that having a CC statement for galleries that allow sharing would help remind folks of the need for attribution. I can go to the CC website, create the license type and paste the code into the description of my gallery, but it would be nice if SM would give options for that during the creation of gallery settings.

    As Ferguson correctly notes, I am way overthinking this and the percentage of folks that would care or be affected by my insanity is so minimal as to make the point moot. eek7.gif

    Anyhoo, I appreciate responses, cheers to one and all.

    Lee
    Lee Wiren
  • FergusonFerguson Registered Users Posts: 1,345 Major grins
    edited April 26, 2016
    Wiren wrote: »
    .
    As Ferguson correctly notes, I am way overthinking this and the percentage of folks that would care or be affected by my insanity is so minimal as to make the point moot. eek7.gif

    Lee, I hope you know I meant no offence, but to take that sentence...

    It's because such a few percentage will pay attention that I said that. Maybe the statement should have been "setting yourself up for frustration". eek7.gif

    A related conversation on another site had a guy who set up a booth and sold prints at the event, and he said by fair his biggest issue with regard to image theft were parents -- NOT kinds, but 30-something parents -- who walked up, took a phone, and photographed his prints right in front of him, despite a sign asking them not to. I'm just astounded he even needed a sign.

    The sanctity of intellectual property in this country seems at an all time low.
  • WirenWiren Registered Users Posts: 741 Major grins
    edited April 27, 2016
    Ferguson wrote: »
    Lee, I hope you know I meant no offence, but to take that sentence...

    It's because such a few percentage will pay attention that I said that. Maybe the statement should have been "setting yourself up for frustration". eek7.gif

    A related conversation on another site had a guy who set up a booth and sold prints at the event, and he said by fair his biggest issue with regard to image theft were parents -- NOT kinds, but 30-something parents -- who walked up, took a phone, and photographed his prints right in front of him, despite a sign asking them not to. I'm just astounded he even needed a sign.

    The sanctity of intellectual property in this country seems at an all time low.

    Ferguson, I took no offense. It is one of my traits to overthink and over complicate and I appreciate it when folks slap me with reasonable sanity.

    I actually expect you to be as right as a Vulcan on the percentage of folks who would care about the topic. rolleyes1.gif

    I don't doubt the iphone photo's of prints at the booth by young parents... I have had to scold my own siblings over lifting my own stuff and posting it without credit as though they took the shots and not correcting their friends who compliment them, yet they get mad at me for pointing it out... headscratch.gif

    I think I will re-think the whole thing... go back to basics (much of what Viv was trying to say - Thank you Viv) and just watermark and lock it up in hopes that booth sales will be good, at least viewing them online will give them something to look forward to at the booth's.

    Again, appreciate the time, discussion and thought in the answers I have gotten.

    Cheers all thumb.gif

    Lee
    Lee Wiren
  • JtringJtring Registered Users Posts: 675 Major grins
    edited May 5, 2016
    I have the CC-BY-NC notice up on my site at any place where you can get to a gallery. At best I hoped it would encourage the honest to check what is and is not allowed ... and act accordingly.

    My experience is not real promising. I had a few pictures copied and posted on somebody's non-commercial website. I heard about them though a third party. I wrote the person who was using my pictures and explained his use would be fine if he included the attribution that CC-BY-NC asks for. It was a nice site and he was using my images in a positive way. He was happy to comply. He was a fundamentally honest and honorable man. But he never even looked at the what all that CC-BY-NC stuff on my site meant when he copied the image in the first place. You can just imagine the thought process. It's there. It's the web. I can effortlessly copy it. It must be OK. How can there be any more to worry about?

    So if you enable social sharing, don't expect even CC-BY, even from basically honorable folks.

    I've kept the CC-BY-NC flags up. Who knows, maybe someday I'll get an attribution. And if somebody gets enormously rich from one of my images -- fat chance, I know -- there might be grounds for action.

    (Sorry for the long delay on posting. I don't check in on this forum very frequently since I have a power account, not a pro one, and don't sell images.)
    Jim Ringland . . . . . jtringl.smugmug.com
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