Michael Tippett of NowPublic notes that a ‘moblogged’ photo was nominated as a best photo of the year by Time magazine — the emblematic shot taken by Adam Stacey with his camera phone minutes after a terrorist bomb went off in the London subway.
It’s pretty stunning that Gamma would reproduce the image without Stacey’s permission. Maybe they’ll know now that a work licensed under Creative Commons doesn’t mean it’s fair game for commercial use.
Adds Tippett:
We are quickly approaching a time when all big stories will be broken by citizen reporters and these accidental bystanders will need tools that let them distribute their work to news organizations while still protecting their rights. This is the first high profile case but there will be others. Photo sharing is a good thing but citizen reporters need to make use of tools that protect the copyright owner while serving the general public.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
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