Channel 4 News posted a collection of dramatic photos to its Google+ page of the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy in New York City and elsewhere on the US east coast. My second thought was why post these pics with the restrictive copyright wording of “all rights reserved“? I noted in my post on Google+ when I shared Channel 4’s post: […] So how does that fit with the social web and sharing – just like I’ve done with the pics here on Google+? And if I import this Google+ post to my blog or share it on Twitter, that broadens the scope of the share by some magnitude, and then what? And what if someone shares my post and […]
Do your due diligence before using someone else’s content online
The Financial Times reports on an interesting legal dispute between British luxury fashion house Burberry and the estate of actor Humphrey Bogart that highlights the copyright minefield businesses can be faced with on using images online. Burberry used a still from the final scene of the film Casablanca, showing Bogart in his iconic trenchcoat, in a Facebook timeline depicting the evolution of Burberry’s products and culture. Bogart’s estate said the use was without its permission and, in any case, Bogart preferred the rival Aquascutum brand. While the FT says the legal dispute has been settled, its report illustrates the rocky path for the unwary when it comes to using third-party content, whether that’s images or any other digital medium. I […]
Share on Pinterest if you have the right
One online property that’s been getting huge attention over the past few weeks is Pinterest, the join-by-invitation content-sharing and social networking service. Not only huge attention but also huge take-up by its users – TechCrunch reported earlier this month with data from comScore showing Pinterest reached 11.7 million unique monthly US visitors, crossing the 10 million mark “faster than any other standalone website in history.” Like many other people, I’ve been experimenting with Pinterest although I’ve yet to really get going and ‘pin’ much content that I gather from my travels around the web that I’d want to share with a community at Pinterest. Clearly I’m not the right gender demographic anyway as 97 percent of Pinterest users are female, […]