For The Glory Of The Collective

[poliphilo]

When they say "Commons" they mean it.  One of my pictures had been up an hour or so when someone grabbed it, polished it a bit, reposted it- and now it shows up in his gallery not mine. I do have the option of throwing the switch and replacing his "improved" version with my original, but that would be petty, wouldn't it?

To begin with I was a little taken aback, shocked even, but I've come to terms with it. Wikimedia is a, vast, international, collaborative exercise- and anything that's thrown onto the table is immediately ownerless and can be played around with by anybody who thinks they've got the cojones.  I've done some minor editing work myself- nothing as radical as claiming someone else's picture as my own- but fiddling about with categories.  Thanks to my industry "Albert Dock, Liverpool" now appears under the bigger category "Liverpool"- which makes it a little easier to find. I'm a good worker bee.

Ah well, back to the hive...

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

When you say "and now it shows up in his gallery not mine," do you mean that literally? His version appears in his gallery, and yours no longer appears in yours? I wouldn't like that one bit.

I post my pictures to Flickr under a Creative Commons licence which allows me to make some choices; and I specify (if I can remember this correctly) that my pictures are free to use, credited, for non-commercial purposes.

Wikimedia demands absolutely unconditional surrender, which is why I don't post there.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's it, precisely. He now "owns" the picture. I could claim it back by asking the site on which it is posted to "revert" to my original. By editing it he turns it into a new work.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

That ought to be illegal. Your pictures are wonderful, and no one ought to be able to take them as his/her own.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Yes, but that's how the system works. The guy who snaffled my picture was within his rights. His argument would be that he's improved it.

And perhaps he has. He took a very dark picture and rendered it more legible.

And he hasn't destroyed the original. That still exists and still belongs to me.