Thursday, March 6, 2014

I Deleted a Comment ... and I Feel Bad About It

For the first time (I think), I deleted a comment left on this blog ... and I feel bad about doing so. But let me explain. One reader posted a comment asking who a particular model was in an image that I used for a caption. This sort of request is very frequent. Unfortunately, I've learned the hard way, that some models or photographers (or whoever owns or claims to own the copyright in some photos) search the web to try to find unapproved uses of images. When they find those sorts of uses, like on this blog, they send a copyright takedown notice (often called a DMCA takedown notice). I think that my use falls within the "fair use" exception, but I don't have the will or resources to fight or pay a judgment should I lose.

Therefore, in order to prevent this from happening, I take care to never post the name of a model. And I ask readers, should they happen to know and want to post, to try to disguise the name somehow. Use an @ instead of an a. Use a 0 instead of an O. Use a ! instead of an l and so forth.

Today, an anonymous reader asked about a model's identity and another reader helpfully responded. Unfortunately, that comment included the model's undisguised name. To the person who posted that name: I'm not angry with you; don't worry. And thanks for helping. I do appreciate it. But I delete the comment in order to limit the likelihood of that model or the photographer stumbling across the blog. I hope you understand.

Like I said, I feel bad about deleting the comment. I don't want to be that person. But I get a lot of enjoyment out of this blog and I think others do too. And I just don't want to risk getting in trouble.

3 comments:

  1. i have asked multiple times myself, but didnt know there's was a problem because on Rebecca's site she tells the names on every post plus website and has been doing it for years.But i dont want to get you in trouble but like others we like to know the names.Maybe disguising the names with numbers and letters....thanks again for the caps

    nightmareman81

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  2. I would give credit ... if I could. Unfortunately, I don't usually know where an image came from. I tend to find images in bulk and save them to a "to be captioned" folder. But images frequently languish in that folder for months or even years before I get around to using them. By then I've forgotten where the image came from. Also, it's worth noting that a lot of the images found online aren't authorized in the first place (think Tumblr reposts for example). And once, when I did get a DMCA takedown notice, I asked if I could keep the image up if I included proper attribution with a link to the model's website where she sold posters and things. "No," was the short response.

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  3. Google offers a picture search. You can put in the URL of a picture or upload it directly and find other pictures like that. For example this: (Sorry for über-long URL)

    https://www.google.de/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZiuCHxGIHGRdWhn-pJs1NkRxX8p4cD3oX-skfZTE1oQeFjzFcKQJ-DY_1zaDH_1_1-ofins8whShw0V0squJwHpljnpe5I_1lpkLqU8SJF6i5nYO2bAiVkszBAtht0s81jhMiOVU0LpD4NnYIFG34WPnJAh3fQwkmXxOawB1hyqkSXaE-sOjWs0AxJD1g_1X_1gw-HL35GHw6TgF51q9xXJbIjb5qEUIKrtwr9rsvCmwXxBZtNBJpO18PoDIlMSxJjFH4pk33CnWxtgsN9ddm1r-0Su9t74OwJNS0wJ1Cwk5jvFSwIutAbpPtzEXpIZwjFTwN76iEMYyl3PDgp5CGX6L51s0_1DASS3GBQBOdB8PLaugEV9B_1YP2UBytKuS5ETrAWqZ1_1vET2MAqwL9IYTymKZOs93_1RkMCzM4goIIEi9GGFJdrr6Ts6COzw1Z18N3Zm0LNNvVnzpVoSCoaRRUxln3x8ScTKhM7eQezkNdCsIfIzRaqVO3J98Ugb4L84nKRkVmq07SuKvB-wuFq86flBpWJnUoOtz2C_1LkuNK6DZZimuW8UFSSUAgp80Wl3GzDOimwELETF9oJUuDVrJrXoG4OEB1Bx6s1j55lyYs3xGXYjc3ht4TAZAYGp5YNOdhe_1GHcNgjduKCC7Ma1IbPSoQM8J3SglO5JQ3w2QB2UEyeXw_1jvh40OsbvvVr6s0oN4wTknhfHMlf20w6wBvlLqMDk6YSMj_1EZE7TtYPvyb6Ttj7x50plRlGVGQ6Wm4KiFG2KLi7QoYDLnHFY4MVVaSFyAAvnKoOc3r3zuvyroQt_18znPjdvVx4FrIMZeoGy67y8ufaIF--I3pP1GTgwzLylSEQKq43yhrxV1DAYmbmY1UQnIlch-61SNesNZAS2LRZclM7Bn_161bGEY8znEmW6xHQ9WxqIvg1dqDI7NvpT0xJraMA15priQu2oX8M6oIdHJSxw_1veS05VaYV6wEouCof1EEIEBpAbS4Krda7hx5hIiiD1kqqNGXs4s7Cf9JH2KA69zC6gtnwE4dYo8lMckDsggR187l8g4-K6tAvvrQ8c3HIPVX9EHcdKvdYd0rODkJYqOnX8-EFfJZxUnvfehsCuwB_1hy40SHMpNxX4odc8kELX5EyoFp0UH4sON5K1bDEB1YGLRQ_1-62kYxnHX9B8S8-cRHqXOeOtPAbU0-bdJh2CMDA6fySk6uUf3QkTbdQJtU5j94y24NSCoA-_1zFHw4QHnDOpPnITZdgT8vmhjr9s9HDx0AWQZZJKK5PNKrSYhO5u4gtry8PyBk1MBvY0H6quar2i8grf9mN6c6WtBamQwaQo3N7ZjLBw

    ReplyDelete

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