The Big Moment - Photos used without permission?

I can see why people are concerned about this. I hadn't paid much attention to the T&Cs. I have now. Weasel words that do not reflect the spirit, I think, in which this site was established or in which, I suspect, many of us joined. At the heart of everyone's relationship with Blipfoto is trust and some of that trust appears to have been breached.

The T&Cs (come on guys, you need to spell "transferable" correctly) appear to cover BC in publishing this stuff on Bored Panda. It would be a different story had Bored Panda approached BC asking to use it. That, I guess, would be covered by the commercial use paragraph that states images should not be used without our permission.

What, incidentally does this bit mean: "we reserve the right to charge a fee for facilitating the commercial exploitation of the materials"?

I assume this is there in case Blipfoto has the opportunity to exploit an image as an agency would. So, in the event that you post something massively newsworthy that media outlets would be falling over themselves to publish, Blipfoto could facilitate the sale of those image rights for a fee or a percentage. I think that's what that means. If so, not a problem for me as long as they're not greedy.

But there's a fine line here on commercial exploitation. It's clear that a lot of people submitting images to the BigMoment thing had no idea those images could end up in a national newspaper or some other online photography site. Even if the T&Cs put BC in the clear, it should have spelled this out in the BigMoment blog.

It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. I don't want my images going on any website without my permission unless I put them there; not on Facebook, Bored Panda or anywhere else. Yet, in agreeing to the T&Cs, I'm giving BC permission to do just that. So, just as I'm thinking "hey the new stats are making things better", now I'm having to think this through again. Harmless promotion? Or underhand exploitation? I'm leaning, in this case, to the latter. Who wins here, commercially? Blipfoto and Bored Panda. Meanwhile a blipper who enjoyed a bit of fun recreating something with their partner risks seeing some oik posting rude comments on parts of the web where no-one gives a damn about being excellent.

So very sorry this has turned so bad for a small group of us and left the rest of the community feeling apprehensive.

I think we have to dwell on the thought that it was a very "Good News" sort of story and gave us a lot of fun doing. I loved looking at as many journals as I could to see their before and after photos. They're great!

@earthwatcher: that aspect of the T&Cs hasn't changed since the takeover, sorry, partnership. Blipfoto always had the right to use images for promotion of the site; as long as I've been a member (3 years) they've posted blippers' images to Twitter and Facebook without needing to ask first. Personally I don't have a problem with that. If I didn't want my images to be public, I wouldn't blip them. For other uses (e.g. newspaper articles about individual journals) they have asked blippers first I believe.

This affair is a bit different though, because of the subject matter and because there were numerous images in a topical "public interest" article, which was likely to draw more attention than a single tweeted photo would. In hindsight, it should have been made clear that BlipCentral were going to distribute this article more widely. I'd like to think they are kicking themselves now.

They've been reposted a lot more times since:

http://mag-picture.blogspot.com/2015/02/couples-that-prove-love-lasts-forever.html

http://oddpad.com/12-couples-that-prove-love-lasts-forever/

http://thepuffington.com/12-couples-that-prove-love-lasts-forever/

http://delawarereason.com/?p=4742

http://www.viraltower.com/12-couples-that-prove-love-lasts-forever/

Just in the first four pages on google. I'm not sure that this is what people signed up for, and I suspect that people are feeling very upset. I'm glad I didn't participate.

This just gets worse and worse.

@ArcLight

Thanks for sharing the other sites. Even though it makes me feel sick, I would rather know where it was.

@Earthwatcher

Sadly I am inclined to agree with you and I speak as someone who adores Blipfoto and have enjoyed every moment of my (almost) four years here, not a day missed.

I see I still feature in those links ArcLight gave even though Blip Central said they would remove me from the article but I guess if the original is just being copied and pasted then i will feature. The link to my journal also still features and I am waiting to find out if my journal can still be accessed even though I've made it private. If it can be then I suspect my blipping days are over and I will deactivate my account.

I am so sad.

@Damnonii, your journal isn't publicly visible if you make it private -- that's the point of the private journal setting. You can test this easily. Either log out of Blipfoto, or use a different browser from your normal one. Try accessing your journal (profile, or any blip). If you're not logged in, you'll get a "This journal is protected" page. so no-one reading the articles can click through and read your journal.

My journal can't be accessed from the links. Phew.

Neither can mine now, phew too!

The pictures appear here too: http://www.zonepics.net/12-couples-that-prove-love-lasts-forever/

I am surprised and disappointed that such intimate and treasured photos were publicised along with direct links to the journals without permission. This (publicity) aspect was not mentioned when the initiative was launched ahead of Valentine's Day.

It is very sad that more and more members will close their journals for public viewing with very adverse and irreparable consequences for the blip community.

what worries me about this link

http://www.zonepics.net/12-couples-that-prove-love-lasts-forever/

it says courtesy of Andy Coffey - if it at least acknowledged Blip then fine and if it was "courtesy of Andy Coffey" did he do the individuals the courtesy of telling them what he was doing?

I'd already stopped linking to Facebook & now I've gone private

I feel very very sad

@ Tinksandtonks

I'd take a guess that businesses have to pay for advertising in these online magazines. Having the article sent to them 'courtesy' of Andy Coffey makes it look like it has been supplied as an interest piece from a random rather than as a blatant promotion of Blip. Just a guess of course...

It strikes me that Andy and Blipfoto have some explaining to do as to why this article - with such personal pictures and statements in it - has basically gone viral. Control of the images has been lost.

The ZonePics article is absolutely useless as promotion of Blip because it doesn't mention Blipfoto anywhere. Or credit the photos to the photographers. I suspect ZonePics just grabbed them from BoredPanda and credited Andy because his name was on them. ArcLight's right -- once they're out there, Blipfoto has lost control. In this case I think the photographers would be within their rights to ask ZonePics to take their photos down.

Can I ask if any of those affected have had any communication from blipcentral about whether they've tried to contact the sites that are replicating the photos to have them taken down? I may be naive in this, but given that the composite was put together by a blip person, don't they have some responsibility to address peoples' complaints?

If Andy is the 'Community Manager' does that mean he is responsible for the blip community, or communicating blip to the wider internet community? In any case, all these journals going private leaves precious little community to either share or advertise. Grumble grumble.

'Sorry for any confusion caused ...'

Please substitute 'confusion' with 'irritation', 'disgust', 'disappointment' and 'distrust'.

Please stop counting how much money our PRIVATE journals are worth to you because no amount of money will compensate for any breach of privacy or trust.

Above all, THANK YOU for convincing me that it is REALLY a bad idea to join any of your 'extra-curricular' projects. You had better be especially careful of offending people who come from countries where it is the custom for lawyers to demand super exorbitant fees and where legal damages can amount to millions, money which all your lifetime membership fees will never be able to cover.

I wonder what Blipcentral would do if we all made our journals private?

i was wondering exactly the same...(2 great minds and that?...)
that would mean that nobody could see any images...clever...we should try it!?...would we dare?...

Again one of my blipfriends has found her photo in a starge site - and is leaving Blipworld. My friends are upset. I am upset.

I wonder if you could come out of your closet again, and explaing Exactly What Are Your permissions To Share Our Captures for Third Party. Are you planning to do it again?

Have we missed some distribution right issue here? I have thought we blippers still own All Publishing Rights to our own photography.

Sharing blips / material from here without a permission is stealing to my mind, if there is no agreement about it. So - is there?

Now is time to tell people about this.
Quickly.
Thank you.

Susanna

...and I am private here already: Decicion easy to make after any outsider can read anything here.

I have started even to watermark my shots for now on.

Anyone with me...?

Susanna wrote: "

...and I am private here already: Decicion easy to make after any outsider can read anything here."

I don't agree with what BlipCentral did with the BigMoment, but I think it's time someone challenged the suggestion made by quite a few people that previously Blipfoto was "private". It wasn't. It's a public website, anyone can see the contents. How many of us have friends or relatives who can view our journals without being logged in? The only thing that's changed in this respect is that BlipCentral have given us the option to make our journals protected so that only approved subscribers can see them. So that's more privacy, not less. They've also stated that they don't share protected journal entries on social media -- no point, since non-members can't see them.

@ Veronica

Sorry but that's not quite true.

Blipfoto used to be open for everyone to see but back in April 2013 the site was closed down to the public without any communication that this was being done... the joy of keeping a journal means that I can tell you it was around the 10th. Visitors to our journals had to join thus creating an empty journal in order to view our journals. This has since changed, again with no communication, so anyone can view our journals without the need to join.

Call me cynical but I'd guess membership numbers were sufficiently boosted...

My memory of that affair is that people could look at 5 blips in succession and then they had to register (or delete their cookies). But certainly you've always been able to find blip entries in Google.

Yes, the earlier situation was far more better here.

For excample my mother has read my blip site for two and half years as an outsider, as I had shared her an staight internet address into my site.

But if you had no address into the blipfoto, you could not see any of the blips.

Now as I did go private, I had to sign my mother up. Now she has accound which she uses only to see my blips.

But really I am interested in knowing Are We Still Owing Publishing Rights To Our Own Photo Material. Or is it property of Blipfoto after we have shared it here, is there somehow disagreement situation here or not...? My blips will be crap until I have the answer - and I've asked straight from Andy. No answer this far.

"But if you had no address into the blipfoto, you could not see any of the blips."

Sorry, but that's not true. Anyone could stumble across them in Google search results for example, or via Blipfoto's Twitter or Facebook feed. Admittedly they had fairly low visibility as Blipfoto is not a well known site, but they weren't invisible. At one point many of my blips were getting 1,000 views or more, and I am certain not all those viewers were blippers.

PS Read the terms of use:
https://www.polaroidblipfoto.com/legal/terms

"We do not claim or have ownership in any of the materials which you submit, post or display on or through our site. You retain ownership in such materials and you are free at all times to use your own materials as you see fit."

I have tried it in live, and my sites in blipfoto were not (earlier) foundable by my name, or via FB or Twitter.

Ps. Read this.
"Commercial use

If we are contacted by a third party seeking permission to use for commercial purposes any of the materials which you have submitted, posted or displayed on our site, we will endeavour to _contact you and seek your permission. _ If we are unable to contact you or if you do not agree to the proposed commercial use of such materials, then no such use will be permitted by us. If, however, you agree to such use, we reserve the right to charge a fee for facilitating the commercial exploitation of the materials."

Blipfoto has an email to all of singed in users.
So... I can see no problems here, if they would have liked to have the publishing permissions. If not, well....

I'll continue here, but leave this nice chatting and concentrate to blipping again. And wait that my BLIPFOLIO will be back with the CAPTURES! (Victoria, you are so new blipper, that you maybe do not remember it) i had some wonderful shots in Blipfolio and nobody warned me that it would dissappear in the new Blipland... Thanks a lot Blipcentral!

@Susanna: it's still there, just not linked (yet?) from your journal page. Try:

http://www.blipfolio.com/Susanna/

(Great shots, btw)

"Victoria, you are so new blipper, that you maybe do not remember it)"

If by Victoria you mean me, I've been blipping for over 3 years, so yes I do remember it. I think BlipCentral are hoping we'll all forget it ever existed!

@ SooB
Thanks A Lot!!!
Now I found my dear captures (in Blipfolio). My mass drive/ bulk memory seems to got broke today. The blipfolio is maybe the only place I still have some of the best macros... And that is not too much... Too bad.
Anyway, lovely to have these atleast left!

I can see that blip made an error of judgment on this (they seem to do that a lot these days) but really, if you don't want strangers to look at personal pictures why upload them onto the Internet in the first place? As Bill Shakes once said, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."