Who Owns This Picture?

If you answered, "You do, Meg," you are correct.

This picture was taken with my camera. My finger was on the button. That's my cat, in my (former) living room. Everything about this picture belongs to me.

I posted it here on the LPB when I originally took it, and I posted it on Facebook, too. I use it as my avatar on Twitter. I've put this picture out there on the Internet, and I've taken the risk that someone could see it and use it on their own social media site and even claim credit for it. I can't really stop them, unless I want to take the time and trouble of watermarking or otherwise marking the picture as belonging to me. Honestly? I'm too lazy for that. Because I'm too lazy, I have to understand that someone, somewhere, could use or alter this photo without my permission.

I bring all this up because I had a message on Tumblr (another social-media/micro-blogging/narcissistic paradise) this morning berating me for using someone's "fan art" without asking permission.

What?

The picture in question is one of Richard Armitage. I made a fun photoset post a few days ago, called "The official Richard Armitage in a Tux Appreciation Post." It's gotten a lot of "likes" and "reblogs" so I guess people really appreciate Richard Armitage in a tux. I admit up front that I did not take the time to credit the photographers--the pictures were almost all professional shots taken by free-lancers at awards ceremonies, and they're the type of pictures that quickly get posted on blogs and fan forums all over the Internet. Eventually, unless there is a watermark on the photo, credit gets lost. If there is a name available, I'm always happy to include it. On this post, I didn't, because I didn't have names to attach.

Anyway, the girl writing the message was up in arms because I posted her "fan art." I put that in quotes because honestly? I had no idea which picture she was talking about at first. Then I realized...oh. She'd taken a professional freelancer's shot of Richard Armitage and played with it in Photoshop a little, darkening some colors and making it "arty." (That's in quotes because come on, what is artistic in playing with a few colors in a picture?) She now thinks this makes the picture somehow her own, and that she has earned the right to have ownership over the picture. She told me to please email her to ask permission to use the picture.

No! Just, no.

I've made my share of "fan art" in my free time. Gifs from YouTube videos, funny comic strips using pictures of the Keane guys. I generally don't put my name on them because I've made them for everyone to enjoy and I don't really care if I get credit for taking five minutes to make a gif or not. It really doesn't bother me. But I would never dream for one minute that I can convert a professional image (or even a picture taken by a fan who was there) to black-and-white or sepia tones or whatever and then claim ownership for it.

I'm seeing it more and more in social media. People will take a picture of all four Keane guys and crop three of them out so it's only a picture of their favorite. They'll slap their name or blog name on it, because God forbid anyone reblog it without the whole world knowing that So-and-so-blogs-here took three minutes to crop a picture that doesn't belong to them.

I've just sent a tweet off to a guy named Alex Lake, asking his opinion. He's a professional photographer, and he's done a lot of terrific pictures of Keane. I see a lot of his images go from being posted at the Keane official web site to Tumblr, with modifications made and someone else's name on them. It bothers me, and I'm curious if he feels the same or if he just shrugs and think, "That's what being a photographer in the age of the Internet is about." I think it bothers me more that people do it to his photos--perhaps because his photos are what keeps his bills paid and food on the table--than I would be if Harley's huge yawn ended up on Tumblr or LOLCats (frankly, I'd be flattered if it ended up on LOLCats because this is an awesome shot!).

It's an interesting issue, and one that will, no doubt, come up from time to time as I continue to use Tumblr. I'm curious, photographer friends...what do you think? Do you want people altering your photos and then thinking they have some kind of ownership over them? Do you shrug it off?