David Boyle Architect : Marrickville House

NOTICE TO MY READERS – July 7th 2012

After receiving the following email this morning, I was bound to erase the “David Boyle Architect : Kellie Residence” article :

Hi Florence,

We have just noted that you are using images from David Boyle’s website without permission from us. Unfortunately we will have to ask for you to take them down as we are currently shooting these homes for magazines and need to minimise the web exposure.

Thanks very much,

Brigid Arnott, Photographer

 

It is not the first time that I receive this type of email, but this time I would like to write a few words about this.

 

I do not feel offended and I understand this photographer’s position. The issue for me is more that of disappointment of having to delete articles that take time to source and energy to put together. The above message I received was kind and polite – it is not always the case. I understand that it is a crazy period and that people are struggling to “survive” commercially. But it is also tough for us to propose quality content without infringing other’s rights or obligations.

 

When I think about the next post that I want to write, there are always so many issues I need to consider before starting anything. I have the feeling that blogging is going to be trickier as time goes by – especially when the content is original and has not been blogged before. Since I started blogging 4 years ago, I have always respected the following “rules” :  source my content by linking it to the original websites and mention photographic copyrights. And when prior permission for the use of images is explicitly asked and mentioned on the website, I comply with it.

 

If photos may not be used freely, I suggest that they should not be made available on websites – that would save the pain of bloggers receiving unpleasant emails, even sometimes threatening, asking to pay thousand of dollars for the use of an image.

 

Blogging is about sharing content found on the Internet – it is not stealing or abusing. I am now wondering about social networks such as Pinterest that allows members to share images : do people have to take down all the images they “pin” because they haven’t been granted prior permission from websites ? …

 

I do not pretend to help or discover talents but I have had in the past, designers and architects thanking me for the visibility that some of my articles had given them.

 

This will not be the case here –  too bad because I really liked what these architects did.

Florence

 

3 Comments

  • Christina
    12 years ago

    ps. I just took a look at the house on the architect’s website. There sure are a lot of photos for such a big secret.

  • Christina
    12 years ago

    Completely agree with Esther. The inter-web-net is called the “world wide web” because what is posted on it is, indeed, visible to the world. If the information is private, then this can be done by restricting content to login only. Simple. If you are in fact earning money from another person’s photos that you post on this blog, then that is not ok. But if you follow the <> as you state, then you are providing exposure to struggling designers. Furthermore, you’re not a corporate blatantly stealing designs off etsy to flog them in chain stores, but rather a conveyer of info.

  • 12 years ago

    Glad to read this & totally agree. If they consider their images to be so precious then maybe they should just not share them at all. I think it also shows the little respect they have towards people like you. Let them be stuck with printed material with little exposure if that’s what they are interestd in. Luckily there are many other talented and grateful people doing cool projects. And u keep up your amazing work!

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