Great article Jonathan. As always, you provide insightful explanations that make it a little easier to venture into the brave new world of online publishing.
Iantrepreneur
· 2 years ago
nice - I thought I was the only person that offsite his images - I do the same thing, using photobucket. I do not want to create a bandwidth issue with media - I rather just let my bandwidth be for my text and content.
whew - I thought I was a wierdo doing this =P
Melissa Donovan
· 2 years ago
Very clever! I'd like to start practicing this as well, but it will definitely be more time consuming. Still, this is definitely something to consider both for bandwidth and copyright reasons. Thanks for the tip!
That's the goal! I'm glad this one hit the mark. However, I'm definitely going to be keeping an ear to the ground for a good file host. I've got a working solution, but this article exposed a few flaws in my current scheme.
Ian:
Nope, not the only one. Definitely not a freak. I actually know a lot of bloggers that do it. Truth be told, I'm kind of late to this party...
Melissa:
It really doesn't take that much longer, in fact, I find PhotoBucket to be faster than using the WP upload feature as I can add multiple photos at once.
However, since I use MarsEdit to write my blog here, it makes even more sense. I just wish the app integrated with PhotoBucket as well as it does with Flickr.
Just give it a try and see what happens. If you want to play around with the fastest method I know, go to tinypic.com. You can't beat that for speed...
David
· 2 years ago
Thanks for a great overview of off-site strategies. I thought about this for bandwidth reasons - but I didn't really consider my account being killed by my host a possible problem.
I guess if I ever have anything questionable - I will take your advise and hand it off to some other site to deal with.
Why can't people be more useful and less problematic? ;)
JB
· 2 years ago
David:
Welcome for the overview. There are a lot of reasons to consider it through and I only really named a few here.
Still, I'm glad that you like the advice. Hopefully nothing will happen at all but, if it does, it will help protect you.
"Why can’t people be more useful and less problematic?"
Easy, because then I wouldn't have a job. ;)
Then again, I don't mind being one of the millions actively working to put themselves out of business...
Recording Studio
· 2 years ago
As usual, a masterpiece of writing that teaches ignoramuses like me how to protect oneself from the possibility of litigation. Thank you.
JB
· 2 years ago
RS:
Masterpiece? Now you're just making stuff up...
I'm glad that you liked the piece, though I wouldn't call yourself an ignoramus. Save that for those truly deserving. I have a list handy if you need suggestions...
Very welcome for the post!
Jon Henshaw
· 2 years ago
Personally, I prefer to use Amazon S3 for all of our multimedia storage (images, audio and video). Sure, it's not free, but it's damn cheap and extremely fast and reliable.
JB
· 2 years ago
Jon,
First off, thank you for the suggestion and the idea.
As much as I like Amazon S3, it really is an inelegant solution to the problem. Though reliable and reasonably cheap, it is far from user-friendly.
Simply put, S3 was never designed to be an image/mp3 host for a blog. It was instead designed to be the type of service that an image/mp3 host would be built upon. It can take some work dumb it down so that it can work as a fast and easy "drop and share" system.
That being said, the way that one is charged for S3 can hurt too. It chargers per GB in storage, uploaded, downloaded and a set amount per request. For most it is a very cheap service, however, I had one friend who was hit with a nearly 100 dollar bill for one month usage.
If he had gone with another service, it would have been only a tiny fraction of that.
It's a good idea, but I think someone is going to have to build off of it before it really works for your average blogger...
Forrest
· 1 year ago
Maybe it was just wishful thinking ... but reading the title of this post, I assumed you would be tackling the question from the other point of view: that of the image creator. I've still managed to learn a bit, though.
JB
· 1 year ago
Forrest:
A topic for another day then! Thanks for the suggestion.
I hinted at my frustration in your FBI Logo post, and this is the source for much of it. The internet is essentially the Wild West, a lawless black hole into which personal and commercial work both fall. Unfortunately, there's a great deal of confusion in this arena...
JB
· 1 year ago
Forrest: Always taking suggestions. Feel free to comment or email them to me at any time.
The situation you describe is still sadly common but not as common as it was, say, five or ten years ago. Most people seem to have figured out that things are copyrighted once you create them. That's a slight improvement.
A lot of that is actually owed to the efforts by the RIAA and MPAA. They've demonstrated with little doubt that copyright does apply to the Web. However, they've also turned a lot of public opinion against that.
The Web isn't quite the wild west it was, though there still seems to be some lawless corners. Let's hope that those areas get straightened out soon.
Much to think about, thank you for the suggestion!
Forrest
· 1 year ago
I realize that trademarks can be weakened through 'neglect' while copyrights can't. That said ... is it paranoid to worry about something like adverse possession might be happening slowly? Your FBI piracy logo post struck a chord, knowing that there are two tiers of copyright holder. I wonder if it's that people have more respect for the fact that copyrights apply to the web ... or that people fear a lawsuit from a corporation with a lot of staff attorneys? Keeping a reasonable amount of control over a person's own work can feel like Sisyphus trying to push a boulder up a hill...
beux
· 1 year ago
I think is good, the way you do it. I probably will follow that suggestion.
JB
· 1 year ago
Forrest:
Well, the good news is that adverse possession only deals with physical property. It literally can not happen with copyright. Otherwise, one can only imagine how much of a spike we would see in DRM with everyone rushing to protect their content lest they lose their copyright interest in it.
That being said, you make a good point. Those of us in the second tier certainly have a great deal to worry about. However, I also think I might have been a bit simplistic when I wrote earlier that the RIAA has educated the world about copyright, it is also worth nothing that more people than ever are creating and posting their works to the Web. As such, they understand the importance of these protections and, in many cases, are u sing the levers available to protect their works.
As frustrating as it is, the mere act of trying to protect your rights does a better job than doing nothing. It's not a matter of being "secure" but being more secure.
The boulder is not either at the top of the hill or the bottom, it can be somewhere in between on this issue.
Beux:
Glad that you liked it!
Dawn
· 1 year ago
I can definitely understand the viewpoint of being worried about false take down requests from less than sensible individuals. Though in my experience the "false takedown request" panic and screeches of "fair use" have their own set of less than sensible individuals, who try to use such scares as an excuse to violate copyright laws.
So people tend to get caught in the middle, on one side you have people who will abuse it to silence free speech, on the other you have people who abuse it to get away with theft. Really the different legal system in the US is such a nightmare for non-americans.
Jonathan Bailey
· 1 year ago
Dawn: I largely agree. The current copyright conversation is dominated by two extremes and it seems that the climate these days is one of war between those who want almost all uses to be allowed and those that want to prevent all reuse.
It's an ugly mess that no one wins on.
Regarding the legal system in the U.S., I agree but every copyright regime has their own quirks and problems. I've been studying EU copyright law lately, for example and have found elements of it to be as head scratching as anything in the U.S.
This just seems to be an area of law that lends itself to bad rulings and bad legislation...
All Comments
whew - I thought I was a wierdo doing this =P
-Melissa Donovan
Writing Forward
That's the goal! I'm glad this one hit the mark. However, I'm definitely going to be keeping an ear to the ground for a good file host. I've got a working solution, but this article exposed a few flaws in my current scheme.
Ian:
Nope, not the only one. Definitely not a freak. I actually know a lot of bloggers that do it. Truth be told, I'm kind of late to this party...
Melissa:
It really doesn't take that much longer, in fact, I find PhotoBucket to be faster than using the WP upload feature as I can add multiple photos at once.
However, since I use MarsEdit to write my blog here, it makes even more sense. I just wish the app integrated with PhotoBucket as well as it does with Flickr.
Just give it a try and see what happens. If you want to play around with the fastest method I know, go to tinypic.com. You can't beat that for speed...
I guess if I ever have anything questionable - I will take your advise and hand it off to some other site to deal with.
Why can't people be more useful and less problematic? ;)
Welcome for the overview. There are a lot of reasons to consider it through and I only really named a few here.
Still, I'm glad that you like the advice. Hopefully nothing will happen at all but, if it does, it will help protect you.
"Why can’t people be more useful and less problematic?"
Easy, because then I wouldn't have a job. ;)
Then again, I don't mind being one of the millions actively working to put themselves out of business...
Masterpiece? Now you're just making stuff up...
I'm glad that you liked the piece, though I wouldn't call yourself an ignoramus. Save that for those truly deserving. I have a list handy if you need suggestions...
Very welcome for the post!
First off, thank you for the suggestion and the idea.
As much as I like Amazon S3, it really is an inelegant solution to the problem. Though reliable and reasonably cheap, it is far from user-friendly.
Simply put, S3 was never designed to be an image/mp3 host for a blog. It was instead designed to be the type of service that an image/mp3 host would be built upon. It can take some work dumb it down so that it can work as a fast and easy "drop and share" system.
That being said, the way that one is charged for S3 can hurt too. It chargers per GB in storage, uploaded, downloaded and a set amount per request. For most it is a very cheap service, however, I had one friend who was hit with a nearly 100 dollar bill for one month usage.
If he had gone with another service, it would have been only a tiny fraction of that.
It's a good idea, but I think someone is going to have to build off of it before it really works for your average blogger...
A topic for another day then! Thanks for the suggestion.
I embed a © mark in each of my photos, which is most of where my misunderstanding came from. A person took one of my portrait images - a close up of a lady's face - and posted it on a public site in the UK, along with a couple dozen sexually explicit photos and drawings. While I managed to change the .htaccess file to take my image down from the offending site, I got a shocking email. The person claimed ignorance on the matter, told me that "just because a picture says it's copyrighted doesn't mean it is," and that they assumed I've been adding the mark - marring the images - for aesthetics only.
I hinted at my frustration in your FBI Logo post, and this is the source for much of it. The internet is essentially the Wild West, a lawless black hole into which personal and commercial work both fall. Unfortunately, there's a great deal of confusion in this arena...
The situation you describe is still sadly common but not as common as it was, say, five or ten years ago. Most people seem to have figured out that things are copyrighted once you create them. That's a slight improvement.
A lot of that is actually owed to the efforts by the RIAA and MPAA. They've demonstrated with little doubt that copyright does apply to the Web. However, they've also turned a lot of public opinion against that.
The Web isn't quite the wild west it was, though there still seems to be some lawless corners. Let's hope that those areas get straightened out soon.
Much to think about, thank you for the suggestion!
Well, the good news is that adverse possession only deals with physical property. It literally can not happen with copyright. Otherwise, one can only imagine how much of a spike we would see in DRM with everyone rushing to protect their content lest they lose their copyright interest in it.
That being said, you make a good point. Those of us in the second tier certainly have a great deal to worry about. However, I also think I might have been a bit simplistic when I wrote earlier that the RIAA has educated the world about copyright, it is also worth nothing that more people than ever are creating and posting their works to the Web. As such, they understand the importance of these protections and, in many cases, are u sing the levers available to protect their works.
As frustrating as it is, the mere act of trying to protect your rights does a better job than doing nothing. It's not a matter of being "secure" but being more secure.
The boulder is not either at the top of the hill or the bottom, it can be somewhere in between on this issue.
Beux:
Glad that you liked it!
So people tend to get caught in the middle, on one side you have people who will abuse it to silence free speech, on the other you have people who abuse it to get away with theft. Really the different legal system in the US is such a nightmare for non-americans.
It's an ugly mess that no one wins on.
Regarding the legal system in the U.S., I agree but every copyright regime has their own quirks and problems. I've been studying EU copyright law lately, for example and have found elements of it to be as head scratching as anything in the U.S.
This just seems to be an area of law that lends itself to bad rulings and bad legislation...
Thank you for posting!