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In today’s reading, it discussed the evolution of physical and digital ownership in context of social media and the Cloud. Previously, a personal photo or work is considered to be the property of the owner until there is a given contract or agreement. However, in the case of social media, many apps such as Instagram find a loophole by being able to utilize personal content without claiming ownership.
But what does it mean if someone else on the app uses your photo?
In the above conversation, photographer and skateboarder, Max Dublin attempts to get a company that shared his photo (with proper credit) to pay him for using his work on their Instagram page. A lengthy exchange goes down in the DMs with the brand claiming that they gave him credit and that it gave him exposure. Dublin retorts that taking down his photo is meaningless as the intellectual value of his property has already been seen by many others. The argument ends with the small brand telling Dublin to “go extort someone else.”
This argument brings up the question of how the ownership of your property is translated when it is projected through a different medium, in this case, Instagram. In Instagram’s agreement policies, Instagram has the ability to use and sell your photos without consent or paying you. Yet, Dublin’s work was not stolen by the parent company, but instead, another user. Would the same rules and regulations apply?
The reading states that many people often don’t know where their property end up. What would have happened if the brand hadn’t tagged Dublin and gave him credit? Am I infringing on Dublin’s property by including his screenshots in this post? Ownership in the context of contemporary technological world is something that definitely needs to be reworked and established in order to set future standards.
Posted from our fascination by Tony N.