The Dark and Seamy Side of Sharing

Egregious. Unnecessary. Dysfunctional. Narrow-minded. Unethical. Desperate. And those are the good adjectives! Something odd happened on the way to the blog:

This week, a big ruckus erupted on another social media platform that shall remain nameless but rhymes with 'Pacebook'. Someone who shall remain nameless but whose name rhymes with 'Work' was posting a plethora of photos with a caveat that they not be shared with a certain website owner/administrator who shall remain namelsss but who runs CRO. Not that that person pays attention to caveats. In fact, most everyone has a CRO photo-stealing horror story. Read on...

Not being immune to Facebook drama, which sometime requires Comments I Like to Share, I can tell you that when a group is infiltrated by ne'er-do-wells that then overthrow the group admin and lock him out of his own page, it's like some sort of autoimmune disease  that then causes the group to go from version 3.0 (below) to version 4.0 (oh, oh! above) - definitely a sign of trouble. Now it's gone back to 3.0. Jeesh. Just be respectful and courteous!

Some of the group's rules actually concern stealing content. Not being content to see content stolen, I've highlighted this important rule:

The central issue here is how, when, to whom, and for how long consent is granted. And if you visit the CRO website, there are still more rules that look like they were drawn up by a Philadelphia lawyer on caffeine:

But what's the sense of having rules if you play fast and loose with them? I believe there are too many rules, and that rules were made to be broken. But it seems that contributors are held to these rules and the owner/administrator is not. Then there's even more legalese (actually giving me legal unease!):

Now let's discuss the drama I alluded to earlier. Buckle up here. Seems that Railfan A took some really cool photos years ago that came into the possession of Railfan B who decided to post them to Facebook with a caveat that they not be shared with Railfan C. Railfan D sent them to Railfan C who then posted them without appropriate photo credit to Facebook. Confused yet? Railfan B then removed them and also his membership to the Facebook groups. Then, Railfan E, an administrator of the Facebook group got wise and booted Railfan C, whom they'd admitted as a fellow administrator, also disavowing any support or advertising to CRO. And now Railfan B is back aboard. I would suggest that the best way to try to discourage CRO's unethical behaviour is to stop supporting CRO.

Letting someone who is that unprincipled become an administrator would be like granting a Costco membership to a kid that likes large containers of candy. He's going to run amok!

At this point, I'm not going into a long discussion of the perils of photo-sharing and my own personal interpretation of copyright law as it pertains to pictures of trains. 

Instead, I'll let you in on my decision tree. I take train pictures. I can either:

a) keep them to myself, in a hermetically-sealed shoebox on the top-left shelf of my Ikea cupboard until I die, at which time I've stipulated in my will kit that they be buried with me to ensure nobody ever sees them

or...

b) post them to Trackside Treasure.

And the winner is...b)! Read on...

That's what it says in the sidebar of Trackside Treasure re: attribution (above). I recently had an unusual episode in which a sometime-in-the-future book author demanded that photos I had saved from an ebay listing be deleted. Why? Because he had bought a copy of the photo in question and then proclaimed that he therefore owned the copyright to the photo. Well, maybe that copy, but who knows how many other copies have been made and are circulating throughout the world like mosquitoes at a campground? Rather ridiculous.

I had an issue with copyright a few years ago (most of us bloggers have our own copyright horror stories) and mine pertained to having a photo misappropriated, miscaptioned then intentionally included in a for-profit publication. I blogged about it at the time on another one of my blogs. I've since removed that post since the person that misappropriated it is no longer with us, and I no longer felt the need to perpetuate his misdeed, for which he apologized to me, any longer. Rest in peace.

I also had an issue with a photo print that I'd purchased, added to my collection, and included in one of my books. The photographer contacted me. I sent him a complimentary copy of the book. I didn't debate the provenance of the photo, I ended up compensating him the same way I did others who contributed tens or even hundreds of photos to that same book. Resolved.

Just today, a VIA/CN Turbo advertisement appeared online. I commented that that photo was taken from my brother's blog. The poster commented that 'it's available on lots of websites' implying that it wasn't from his blog, or that it's a different photo. Details on the photo confirm that it is the very same photo! So sharing without the initial sharer's knowledge is widespread. Revealed.

One more thing - From Trackside Treasure, if you ever happen to read that far down in the randomly-assembled right sidebar material. I try to live by what I profess. I have to look myself in the mirror in the morning when I shave. My legs. Read on:

This is my separate disclaimer for the temporarily-appropriated header photos that appear at the top of this blog. I added this because an issue was brought to my attention with header photos. If there's something I enjoy more than blogging, it's talking about blogging in the era of Facebook.

So the issue isn't copyright or even sharing, it's maintaining one's reputation as best one can, in an era where everything is just a click away from right click/Save As, remove the watermark, say it's your own photo, reposting and Bob's your uncle! Actually, Bob's my cousin.

So stay safe out there and stay ethical! Less drama means more fun.

Running extra...

Pandemic painting. Staying safe means rocking the neighbourhood. My good wife created these and we'll be distributing them on our walks. Fourteen rocks in total have answered the call to serve during this troubling time. They couldn't get any boulder, and will leave no stone unturned in completing their mission!