Well, memes and copyright issues

[rexbobcat]

Just saw this on FB

http://photo.net/learn/photography-...e-birth-of-an-internet-meme-hurrr-im-a-hoers/

Now, I understand and agree that stealing images is wrong and copyright should be upheld blah blah.

But this isn't a "well this one magazine is using my image illegally."

It's more like "well the entire Internet is using my image illegally.

It's not even a really useable image from what I can see. It's just freaking hilarious.

I think this guy is kind of...a b****h.

Not to say that if he sees someone making a direct profit off of his image that he shouldn't do something.

 

[fjrabon]

Mostly after reading that, I just feel dumber. It was almost difficult to read because my eyes kept getting covered by endless face palming.

 

[spacefuzz]

Meh if one of my images was turned into a meme I would do my best to let the world know I took it, and then capitalize on that free publicity.

At least to me its one thing if its stolen for Time magazine, and a totally different issue if someone uses it not for profit.

 

[sapper6fd]

This battle will never ever ever be won. Its 100,000 photographers vs 2 BILLION people on the intenet. While SOPA will assist with some of it, SOPA will also destroy a lot that is good.

 

[christop]

SOPA (and similar laws we're going to see in the near future) is a nuclear bomb solution for a cockroach problem. It was not really designed for dealing with copyright infringement. It was designed for censorship and control.

While I think the DMCA is also a draconian law on the whole (especially its restrictions on bypassing copy protection), it at least has some fair provisions for copyright owners to issue takedown notices to ISP's (as the guy in the article did) and for the alleged infringers to dispute the takedown (to put the content back online).

 

[amolitor]

Copyright was a great idea for the era when it was POSSIBLE but not TRIVIAL to mass produce copies of certain broad classes of information. That era was a couple hundred years long, and is now over.

It's not at all clear what comes next.