Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
I enjoy the dubious distinction of being the most infringed photographer I know. Every week I send at least a dozen takedown notices to commercial entities using my photographs without permission. I’ve sent one this morning already. My photos end up in youtube commercials, on coupons for pest services, in website banners, in company blog [...]
The last post was rather blunt. This was intentional. I wrote it as a statement to link from my sidebar and my “Image Use” guidelines, rather than as a stand-alone post. Clarifying my infringement enforcement policies is overdue. I’ve been dealing in recent years with a great many commercial entities using my photos, without my [...]
Unfortunately, I contend with hundreds of copyright infringements every year. I have implemented the following policy in an attempt to maintain control over my work. Unauthorized non-commercial uses of my copyrighted images and text online are subject to DMCA takedown requests without advance notice. Unauthorized commercial infringements of my copyrighted images will be met with [...]
If the terms read anything like they do in the National Pest Managment Association’s new pest photo contest, avoid like the plague: By entering this Contest and uploading your Submission, you irrevocably grant to Sponsor and its agents the unconditional and perpetual right to post, display, publish, use, adapt, edit and/or modify such Submission in [...]
This past few weeks I’ve been performing the unpleasant annual ritual of combing the web looking for instances of unauthorized commercial use of my photographs. My rationale for controlling copyright infringement is two-fold. First, infringement deprives me of the revenue I need to host my websites, repair my equipment, and travel to insect-filled jungles. Second, [...]
A couple years back I posted a short bit on how to register photo copyright with the U.S. government. That turned out to be the last time I filled out a registration with pen and paper. For all subsequent submissions I’ve used the new ECO system at http://www.copyright.gov/eco. Let me disabuse you of any preconception [...]
This morning I had to deny a scientist permission to use my photos of her ants in a paper headed for PLoS Biology. I hate doing that. Especially when I took those photos in part to help her to promote her research. The problem is that PLoS content is managed under a Creative Commons (=CC) [...]
Last week I performed my semi-annual copyright registration ritual, and in the middle of the paperwork it occurred to me that this might make an absolutely scintillating blog post. So, here’s why copyright registration is important, and here’s how to do it. U.S. law is generous towards photographers. Photographs are automatically copyrighted as soon as [...]
People occasionally ask why I don’t assign my photos a Creative Commons license. Dan Heller explains. And adds a horror story here. The short of it is, while Creative Commons was established with the best of intentions it is easily abused in the photographic setting. Users unknowingly open themselves up to large legal risks, and [...]
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net; or follow @Myrmecos on Twitter.
