Googled
There are some things that are very tempting to write about. For instance: the dynamic between all the foriegn teachers in this apartment block. But I resist...because, eventhough I would write harmless characterizations and comical scenarios, they could one day be discovered by a late night web surfer and I would feel just awful. Its like saying something behind someones back, and then the next time you see them you are paranoid because there is that chance they have heard through the grapevine. Just out of curiousity, I wondered what someone would have to search in Google to discover this weblog. One combination I tried was "Betsy China". This blog did not appear on the first page of results, but I did discover http://www.betsygoestochina.com/ (See? The late night surfing takes you places you would never expect!). This woman is interesting. Her life sounds like a lot of fun and she takes amazing photographs. You should visit the site for the photographs alone. Many are regular sights we see around here that I have not been able to capture.
posted by B | 7:38 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Betsy,
Your blog continues to seriously rock.
The question about photo rights is a good one. Reverse the question and ask, "what if someone wants to use my photos someplace else? What would I want for that?"
The whole issue of "ownership" of image, sound, and word is getting a lot of press and stirring a lot of discussion.
As I understand it you "own" the rights to anything you create. So if you make a photograpgh it is yours whether you have a (c) on it or not. If you put it on your website without attribution, meaning you don't say "this is my photo" then it can be a lot harder to establish your ownership if it becomes an issue.
The whole issue of the "rights" associated with the photo are where all the arguments are coming up. By putting it on the blog you implicitly give permission for someone to download a copy of it to their computer becuase that is the way our browsers work. If we don't put something next to it like: "distribution or use of this photo without permission is prohibited" then someone else can pretty much copy and post it and such. They can't say it is theirs, however.
In practice, and especially in the blogosphere, we all tend to cross reference and cross post a lot of stuff.
One way to do that is to link to the photo instead of copying it to your site. So if I want to include the photo of you drinking tea I would insert an image and make the href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/123/1485/1600/teatime.jpg"
This neat little trick avoids some rights issues since you are simply pointing at the photo rather than copying it and redistributing it. The owner retains control because they can take it down anytime they choose.
You could also write the author/owner and as to post some of their work. I always appreciate that and do it too.
I'm starting an audio documentary project and have been acquainting myself with the issues of digital rights as they apply to music and such. Boy what a pain this is. Even to extent that, let's say, I'm recording an interview with someone in a public place or semi-public like a coffee shop and there happens to be music in the background either provided by the shop or some skater dude walking by with a boom box. Guess what? That music would need to be "cleared" with whoever owns the rights to the song(s) for that piece to be broadcast. And then you get to the whole thing about transition and background music. Oh yeah - "Happy Birthday" is copywrited. I read that the rights for that can be as much as $15k for documentaries and they don't deal.
I publish my blog with a Creative Commons license. I like the philosophy of Creative Commons and think this is a worthy approach to protecting my ownership of something while allowing the internet to do with the internet wants to do - be free and foster sharing and communication. I think that more communication will always be better than less and sharing ideas is more powerful than hording them. Call me naive. Be that as it may take a look at the Creative Commons site and think about using one of their licenses.
As for the other Betsy I would say drop her a line, say hello and ask if she is OK with sharing stuff.
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