Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The photographers work, the photograph, Use Licenses
What do we do when someone changes their mind about an image they have allowed OPF to use by posting it here or submitting it to OPF? There are both copyright issues as well as moral rights. The latter refers, here, just to consideration to the artist's feelings.
We have never specifically discussed these two items fully, although we did touch on them in a previous thread.
Any image posted on OPF gives OPF merely a license to display your image on OPF. So your image can be viewed by potentially millions of people worldwide. OPF has neither interest nor claim in your copyright that belongs to you, the author, or whomever you so assign such rights.
Display licenses: For images posted in threads, should you ever change your mind for any reason, OPF will respect your wishes and no longer show that particular image, except where we determine that it disrupts the context, meaning, or usefulness of a thread. We will however try to accommodate any such requests as much as possible without affecting the integrity of the site. Additionally, any image that you permit us to display on a non-thread or article page (for example, in a gallery or on the home page), we will without question, take down the image, subject to any alternative arrangement you make with us in advance.
So any picture used in the cycling galleries can be withdrawn simply by your request. No one has ever done so, but still, we will respect your wishes. Further any picture in a "Show US" challenge, where we just show each other examples of work under a particular title, such as "Animals of the Wild in Action" can be withdrawn at the authors wish. Just be courteous and let us know!
Images posted for processing or editing: For photos posted for optimizing, editing/retouching or repairing., obviously, you are granting a broader license to OPF and its members, to the extent you grant permission to perform such changes. In such case, expect that OPF and its members will in good faith, work on someone else's photograph, attribute credit to the original photographer, and respect its original intent.
So these are considerations that OPF takes into account when someone want to withdraw a file posted for editing/processing that has already been distributed:
1. Has substantial work been already performed at the original poster's request?
2. Is this work especially important as far as effort or technique?
3. Were the posted new versions professional and morally respectful of the work?
4. Are there other threads that deal with the same issues and solutions?
5. When could this thread be deleted without wasting our efforts?
I feel that the above philosophy is clear and reasonable. Still, from time to time, we like to open some policies to discussion so everyone is on the same page and refinements can be heard.
Asher
(BTW, this discussion may not cover Moral Rights as defined by U.S. law. I don't know if other countries have such rights separate from copyright owner's rights. That, itself is an interesting and separate legal topic that OPF will attempt top cover in the near future. Rest assured it does not generally refer to the vast majority of photographs except under certain narrow circumstances)
Edited to clarify terms.
What do we do when someone changes their mind about an image they have allowed OPF to use by posting it here or submitting it to OPF? There are both copyright issues as well as moral rights. The latter refers, here, just to consideration to the artist's feelings.
We have never specifically discussed these two items fully, although we did touch on them in a previous thread.
Any image posted on OPF gives OPF merely a license to display your image on OPF. So your image can be viewed by potentially millions of people worldwide. OPF has neither interest nor claim in your copyright that belongs to you, the author, or whomever you so assign such rights.
Display licenses: For images posted in threads, should you ever change your mind for any reason, OPF will respect your wishes and no longer show that particular image, except where we determine that it disrupts the context, meaning, or usefulness of a thread. We will however try to accommodate any such requests as much as possible without affecting the integrity of the site. Additionally, any image that you permit us to display on a non-thread or article page (for example, in a gallery or on the home page), we will without question, take down the image, subject to any alternative arrangement you make with us in advance.
So any picture used in the cycling galleries can be withdrawn simply by your request. No one has ever done so, but still, we will respect your wishes. Further any picture in a "Show US" challenge, where we just show each other examples of work under a particular title, such as "Animals of the Wild in Action" can be withdrawn at the authors wish. Just be courteous and let us know!
Images posted for processing or editing: For photos posted for optimizing, editing/retouching or repairing., obviously, you are granting a broader license to OPF and its members, to the extent you grant permission to perform such changes. In such case, expect that OPF and its members will in good faith, work on someone else's photograph, attribute credit to the original photographer, and respect its original intent.
So these are considerations that OPF takes into account when someone want to withdraw a file posted for editing/processing that has already been distributed:
1. Has substantial work been already performed at the original poster's request?
2. Is this work especially important as far as effort or technique?
3. Were the posted new versions professional and morally respectful of the work?
4. Are there other threads that deal with the same issues and solutions?
5. When could this thread be deleted without wasting our efforts?
I feel that the above philosophy is clear and reasonable. Still, from time to time, we like to open some policies to discussion so everyone is on the same page and refinements can be heard.
Asher
(BTW, this discussion may not cover Moral Rights as defined by U.S. law. I don't know if other countries have such rights separate from copyright owner's rights. That, itself is an interesting and separate legal topic that OPF will attempt top cover in the near future. Rest assured it does not generally refer to the vast majority of photographs except under certain narrow circumstances)
Edited to clarify terms.
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