This diary is the result of another collaborative effort by Patriot Daily, Got a Grip, nonnie9999, mikk0, On The Bus, pico, melvin, jlynne, possum, and srkp23. It is the second in a series on copyright in the digital age.
Welcome to part two of our series on issues of copyright and photography. In the first installment, we talked about the legal background of copyright law and fair use provisions, and we offered a few suggestions both for future copyright policy at dailykos and for finding free or fair use photographs on the web.
In this part, we're going to discuss current events photos, the holy grail for any site that wants to chart events as they're taking place.
Naturally, current events photos are the most difficult to find: they have an immediate value, which makes it less likely that media sources in a fiercely competitive market are going to allow their free and unfettered use. Furthermore, photographers often put themselves in dangerous situations to get the best photos, so unless they want their material to be freely distributed, we shouldn't rob them of their rightful compensation.
However, not all media sources and photographers feel so strongly about the distribution of their work, and today we're going to talk about two main sources of current events photos: foreign media and indepedent media. This diary is in no way exhaustive, but we'll take you through a few test cases to show you how to begin your own searches for online photos - what to look for, how to target your searches, what to avoid, etc.
For your browsing convenience, here's a linkable table of contents to get you to the section(s) you're most interested in reading:
- Independent, Alternative, and Small media
- Foreign media
- International Agencies and Forums
- Issue & Subject Specific Sites
- Kossack Photo Library
1. Independent, Alternative & Small Media Love Sharing Pics!
A quickie Google search reveals that once you move past the MSM, there are media sites that would love to share their current event pictures with us. For example, check out VOA News (Voice of America) and RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). It is important to remember that sometimes these new agencies cover important world events from a different angle than the US MSM, which like to saturate us with identical news from media pools. VOA was one of the few to provide continuous updates, for example, when the Iraq War started.
VOA’s copyright statement provides permission to "use any material that is published by voanews.com ... There is no need to request further permission."
VOA does request that it be given credit and that the material not be abridged or edited. This permission extends to "all text, audio and video material produced exclusively by the Voice of America" which is public domain. However, VOA has a license from some wire services, such as AP and AFP, and those pictures may not be used without obtaining permission from the particular news agency.
The cool thing is that VOA has websites to provide domestic and global news in around 48 different languages. It is not simply a matter of providing the same news in different languages, but rather presenting different stories and pictures, thus expanding the size of the VOA picture library. In addition, VOA photos are published in American media, such as the The New York Jewish Times.
The bad news is that there appear to be more AP and AFP photos than VOA photos at the VOA site. Also, finding a photo requires clicking onto to the stories to see what picture may be attached. However, a search for "VOA photo" at the general Google or Yahoo! search engine and in the image search engines yielded numerous photos on political and current events.
Radio Free Europe also permits use of their photographs. Their on-site copyright statement appeared limited to permission to republish text content but RFE/RL responded very quickly to an email inquiry about the use of their photos:
For photos credited to "RFE/RL", we are glad to give you non-exclusive permission to re-post to your website. We only ask that you give us proper credit when republishing the photo, by crediting it to "RFE/RL" and using the following text when identifying the source of any such photos used:
Copyright (c) 2007. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. http://www.rferl.org
On photos that are credited to any source other than "RFE/RL", you must contact the copyright holder directly to gain their permission to re-post.
RFE/RL has photos scattered throughout the site and each usually indicates whether it is their picture or from a news service. A good starting point is the "specials page," which provides material by subjects (e.g., Iraq, Iran, War on Terror), specific issues (e.g. Post-Saddam Iraq) are listed in a drop-down box and additional material is listed in archives dating back to 1996, providing coverage of additional issues. Once again, we have to click onto the articles to see the pictures and then limit ourselves to RFE/RL photos, which are fewer than wire service photos.
RFE/RL also has a few photo galleries, like this small gallery on Afghanistan. And, the photo gallery for world events in 2006 showed this dramatic picture of Belarusian police who "violently broke up opposition demonstrations in central Minsk in the wake of the disputed presidential election:"
Copyright (c) 2007. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. http://www.rferl.org |
The downside is that, similar to VOA, we may find some pictures faster by conducting Google searches.
The independent media also love to share photos. The Chicago Independent Media Center has a gallery of over 18,000 photos which is organized by dozens of subjects, but the primary focus is protests. Once you click onto a thumbnail photo, the individual picture page states whether the picture is from the public domain, copyrighted or under Creative Commons license. This site also has a separate selection of Bush protest photos that are stated to be part of the public domain.
Please note that the Chicago site is one of many indymedia centers located throughout the US and the world.
And, if you are interested in a specific country, smaller online publications are quite generous. News From Bangladesh essentially provides a carte blanche copyright policy of its material because it believes in the "free flow of information and people’s fundamental right /access to knowledge and information."
Speaking of which...
2. Foreign Media
Different countries have different laws regarding the copyright of materials, and international treaties work to protect those laws across borders - so pulling an AP photo from another country's website does not mean that you've circumvented the AP's copyright on that photo.
But not all countries have the same type of copyright laws, so if you're really interested in finding photos and especially if you have a familiarity with another language, you may be surprised by what you can find.
Today, I'm going to talk about one unexpected ally in the dissemination of current events news: Russia. That Russia would be more willing to spread this information shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Under the Soviet regime, restriction of information was the most important tool the government had for supressing dissidents, and the true heroes of the time weren't soldiers or politicians, but ordinary citizens who copied illegal manuscripts on their typewriters and spread them throughout the city: the samizdat (literally "self-publishing"). During Gorbachev's years, the single most powerful nail in the Soviet coffin was his policy of glasnost' (transparency), which allowed the free(er) spread of information about the current state of the world, sparking all sorts of decades-supressed anger and disillusion. The test case of glasnost's effectiveness came during the Chernobyl debacle, when the Soviet authorities were forced to choose between covering up a disaster of catastrophic proportions or admitting that something went wrong. In the end glasnost' did more to bring down the Soviet regime than any combination of reaganolatry myths.
As if in deference to the historical impact of information, Russian law actually exempts reporting of current events from copyright, although that may not quite protect photographs of those events.
But most of Russia's online news organizations don't mind. In fact, they encourage you to use their materials, provided you obey the First Commandment of photo usage: always link back to the source.
Take this lovely note from the editors at Lenta.Ru:
All materials whose copyright belongs to Lenta.Ru can be reproduced in any media, on the Internet or by any other means without any limitations on volume and period of publication. This permission applies equally to newspapers, periodicals, radio stations, television channels, and Internet sites. Reference to the original source is the only condition of reprinting and relaying. No preliminary agreement as to the reprinting from the side of the publishers or authors Lenta.Ru is required.
Wow, that's... uncommon. But it's nearly across the board among Russian news outlets online: all they want is a link, and you're good to go. Compare this to the type of legal restrictions you get from the typical Western news outlet:
You may not copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, or otherwise use bbc.co.uk content in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. You also agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any bbc.co.uk content except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of bbc.co.uk content requires the prior written permission of the BBC.
So while the Western news outlets put a severe restriction on the use of any materials, the Russians are happy to let you use their materials, provided you give them credit.
Two major caveats with this:
- Not all the photos you'll see are property of those news outlets. Some quick clicking through will pull up plenty of photos from AP and Reuters, among others. Make sure to note how the photos are attributed on the site already.
- The sources are, for the most part, in Russian. This one can be a major pain, but before you invest in a set of language CDs for your morning carpool, remember that a) a lot of these sites have English mirrors, and b) even for those that don't, proficiency in the language is neither the goal nor a requirement.
Don't underestimate the use of online translators if you need to verify particular articles (Babelfish is a popular example). The results of their translations will not pass muster for any analytical writing, but we're after pictures, not analysis. It doesn't matter if you can't parse the difference between правда and истина (they both mean "truth", incidentally) - all you need to do is match the photos with the events you want to discuss.
I'll walk you through a sample.
Let's say you're reading about the recent arrest of suspects in an alleged UK kidnapping plot. The BBC is a great site for the news, and they'll even let you sample a few lines of the report, but what you can't take is that picture - at least, not without significant modification (see the earlier diary on this).
So you hop on over to Вести, one of Russia's premier sites. Run the page through an online translator to find the link for "In the World", which is likely to be where you'd find the story, right? You'll notice this headline about halfway down:
In Birmingham are arrested eight suspected of the terrorism
Inelegant, but that sounds about right. Click on the story, and this is what our online translator gives us for the opening paragraph:
The British police arrested into the medium eight people as a result of anti-terrorist operation. As ITAR- TASS transfers, it was carry ouied in the British city Birmingham (county West -Midlends).
That kind of prose is unlikely to win anyone a Pulitzer (I especially love "into the medium", which was my translator's way of rendering в среду, or "on Wednesday"!) but it confirms exactly what we needed to know: the Вести story is covering the same material that you're documenting, and even better, it comes with a shiny new screencap from Вести's television broadcast... score!
So now we can put together a nice package of information for dailykos readers, including your analysis, a relevant snippet or two from the BBC, and a screencap from Вести:
(photo copyright Вести, 2007)
It's been a strange week in the United Kingdom. On Wednesday, police arrested half a dozen suspects for an alleged kidnapping plot, the BBC is now reporting. What's more, the police are considering this part of a different type of security threat from their usual formulations of "terrorism":
Security sources said a terror plot not aimed at mass casualties would mark "a different approach" to UK terrorism.
"A different approach"? What's up with that?
(Important! Remember not to link the photo directly from Вести's site. They probably wouldn't mind, but dailykos policy requires photo links to come from photo storage servers. This will prevent broken or changed links in the future.)
Voilà. It's all there: your story, your links, your sources, and a bright, illustrative photo. And more importantly, it's all perfectly legal.
I wish there were an easier way to do this, but with the AP/Reuter's death grip on the scrotum of current events photos, your choices are severely limited.
So here's a short list of Russian media sites that allow photo linkage for current events reporting. For those of you who like to augment your diaries with images, these could be an invaluable resource once you get the hang of using them:
- http://www.vesti.ru/ Probably the most thorough of the sites on this list, but unfortunately it's only in Russian (Learn to use those translators!)
- licensing info: at the bottom of the page
- photobank: http://www.vesti.ru/... (Very useful because it's also a television outlet, so they do a lot of their own reportage and post ready-to-use screencaps.)
- http://www.rian.ru/ The Russian International Information Agency. This one comes with an English mirror: http://en.rian.ru/
- licensing info: http://en.rian.ru/... (you can use anything on the free version of the site, but have to pay if it's from the subscription-only version)
- photobank: http://en.rian.ru/... (mixed bag, many are AP photos)
- http://pravda.ru/ An online splinter from our old cold-war buddy, Pravda. It's a mess of a site, and the articles are terrible, but it also has an English mirror: http://english.pravda.ru/
- licensing information: at the bottom of the page
- photobank: http://english.pravda.ru/... (also a mixed bag, but they're good about finding fair use photos when possible; some AP mixed in)
- http://lenta.ru Very thorough site. Unfortunately they seem to have a deal with the AP and other news outlets, since many of their photographs come from those sources.
- licensing information: http://lenta.ru/... It's a pity they use so much foreign media, because they seem to have the most liberal policy about offering site content for use.
- http://www.newsru.com/ Also thorough, contains a lot of links and information
- licensing info: at the bottom of the page
This is only a very small percentage of Russian news sites on the web - we've been collecting them over at TIP - so feel free to explore at will. The Russian government's commitment to the spread of information (ironically enough, eh?) is an invaluable resource.
And that's only Russia.
3. Please Don’t Forget International Agencies & Forums.
The UN is also pretty user friendly and responded immediately to my email inquiry about its copyright policy, granting permission to use their photos provided they are not published in a printed publication or used for advertising purposes, and that the photos be credited:
Thanks for your interest in UN Photo.
If you are interested in using photos available on our website, please know
that you have permission to use them for your web site. They may not,
though, be published in a commercial printed publication without our
permission, nor used for advertising purposes. We require that all
photographs be credited UN Photo.
Please let me know if I may be of any further assistance.
General guidelines for the use of our photographs:
United Nations photographs are the property of the United Nations, which
holds all rights in connection with their usage. These photographs may be
used only in editorial contexts and not for advertising purposes. Each
photo must be credited as follows: UN Photo [by (name of photographer), if
available].
UN Artwork Photo |
The cool aspect of the UN photos is the quality: The pictures have a clarity and composition more reminiscent of art photography – and, the UN has lots of photo galleries. There is a gallery of official functions which has a search engine, making it a good place to look if you need a picture of US or world leaders or general assembly proceedings.
The UN site also provides a gallery for a variety of special exhibits, such as art at the UN, ageing, children, East Timor, environment, human rights, Iraq, landmines, literacy, peacekeeping missions around the world and refugees.
The Iraq gallery shows the faces of the civilians displaced by the war and living in refugee camps:
UN Photos by P. Sudhakaran |
The photo galleries also include refugees in Afghanistan:
UN Photos by Eskinder Debebe |
and refugees in Darfur:
UN Photos by Tim McKulka |
The environmental gallery is way too small, but has beautiful pictures of wildlife similar to the quality of National Geographic photography. The environmental gallery also has a few pictures to demonstrate the water shortages plaguing our world, such as our very dry, cracked earth. And, a "lion waiting his turn to drink, while unperturbed elephants crowd over a hole dug to allow water seepage in Northern Botswana."
4. Issue & Subject Specific Sites Love Sharing Photos!
Websites that focus on one issue or subject like to include lots of pictures of the particular subject and are willing to share.
There are some images, the most prominent being torture victims in Abu Ghraib and the flag-draped coffins of American soldiers coming from Iraq, that have been at the heart of heated controversy complete with legal wrangling, name calling, and creative prevarication. When all was said and done, the government had to release these images to the public under the freedom of information act. There are two websites that happen to offer as comprehensive an array of these images as one could hope for, and both have a great deal to offer besides these sad images.
The first is a small site called The Memory Hole. It's owned and operated by a gentleman named Russ Kick, and if ever you meet him, you should shake his hand and thank him for the wonderful work he does. There is no more concise description of his work than the one he has written on his "about" page.
The Memory Hole exists to preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find, or is not widely known. This includes:
• Government files
• Corporate memos
• Court documents (incl. lawsuits and transcripts)
• Police reports and eyewitness statements
• Congressional testimony
• Reports (governmental and non-governmental)
• Maps, patents, Web pages
• Photographs, video, and sound recordings
• News articles
• Books (and portions of books)
The emphasis is on material that exposes things that we're not supposed to know (or that we're supposed to forget).
The Memory Hole |
There is a very interesting selection of documentation and images here that you would have a hard time finding anywhere else, if at all. Mr. Kick rescues information that is destined for government shredders and puts it in safekeeping. His archives range from a list of the most dangerous vaccines or a report on environmental abuse incurred by the use of snowmobiles in national parks, to the video of the decapitation of American contractor Nick Berg or photos of torture (including some of those tortured to death) at Abu Ghraib. I will warn you up front that there are images, including those from Abu Ghraib, that are incredibly graphic. I cannot stress this enough. Use care when viewing. |
The Terms of Use/Permissions pages appear to be nonexistent on this site. I have searched thoroughly and found nothing. I also e-mailed Mr. Kick to inquire, but I never got a reply. Normally I wouldn't suggest using images or documents under these circumstances. However, there are several clues which lead me to believe that use is safe. First, these images and documents have been saved from the shredders by Mr. Kick so that we can see what the government worked so hard to keep from us. The logo states "rescuing knowledge, freeing information", which indicates to me that we are expected to use it and spread the word. Second, his copyright proclamation states that it is for the site and original text. Third, he shares his photos with other sites that encourage use of the images on their sites, including indymedia. Based on this info, I feel relatively safe in stating that it is acceptable to use the images on this site. I would certainly site The Memory Hole and link to the homepage whenever using something from here. I would also be careful to examine any text on the pages of photos to see if there needs to be citings to other organizations that have released photos to the public. | The Memory Hole |
National Security Archives | Another site which does a similar job of bringing to the light of day those images and documents that the government either doesn't want us to see or is just tired of hanging on to is The National Security Archive at George Washington University. This is a great place to find information on cases where the ACLU has gone to bat for our right to view information and images. It is also a fantastic resource for historical images and documents of the past 50 odd years, such as this image of Nixon and Mao making history in China. |
We are providing a link to a page that will give you access to images of coffins returning from Iraq, Return of the Fallen. If you are looking for a decent photo of the coffins, there are plenty on this page that you can use. However, if you're looking for a more extensive array, there are also some handy zipfiles of 360 images which you can download and unzip. It works just fine, and you have your choice of high resolution images or low resolution images for download. | National Security Archives |
These images were arrived at by a process of trial and error. There is a search function for the site, and by entering "photos" and searching through the long list of links provided, this was one of the groups of images found. There are many others, but you will also find yourself pulling up documents that are just referring to photos. While this isn't as convenient as an at-the-ready image gallery, it was quite enjoyable poking through history to find images that were useful and intriguing. Here again we have a site that provides information that is hard, if not impossible, to find elsewhere. It is a valuable resource for much more than just its images.
The National Security Archive gives a detailed explanation of their Terms of Use. They ask little of us, only wanting to be cited and a link to their website provided.
Even if you don't intend to use images in your diaries, it would be well worth your time to examine these two websites thoroughly. There is a wealth of research material at both sites, and bookmarking for the research alone may prove worthwhile.
And, there is a flower site from Vietnam that welcomes the use of its photographs. We may not write diaries about flowers, but some commenters seem to love posting flower photos!
5. The Kossack Photo Library
Section 2 was written by Pico, sections 1 and 3 by Patriot Daily and section 4 by Got a Grip and we would like to offer one closing tip.
The purpose of this diary series is to find alternative sources of pictures that we may use when posting diaries. Many diaries posted here are time specific with facts but often do not need time specific pictures to depict those facts. That is, if the MSM reported today on the increasing number of internal refugee camps in Iraq, the diary text would explain the who, what, when, why and how of this story and perhaps commentary. But, photos to depict Iraqi refugees need not be dated today unless the particular refugee is the point of the story. So, these alternative sources may be quite useful.
This is why the Kossack library, which kos is mulling over, is so important. Photos arranged by subject can make finding and posting a picture easy and quick! Please remember we only offer a miniscule sampling of what is available online. If other kossacks contributed, we could have thousands of pics in our library that are organized in an easily accessible manner by some Kossack Library team, just like we have teams for cleaning up tags!
Finally, it does not take an arm and a leg to get permission from photographers. This photographer responded immediately when I requested permission to use this photo of his interpretation of our new free speech zones used to separate Bush from protesters:
Photo: Brad Templeton |
Happy picture hunting!