Magnolia Leaves
One of my wife’s (and my) favorite photographic works is this image of Magnolia leaves by Cherie Lester. It has inspired me.
My wife purchased a hand-colored monochrome print by Cherie Lester at a craft fair, but also admired this work which she found online. I have been smitten with it ever since. The thought had occured to me that I might be able to purchase a print of it for her, so I reached out to Cherie Lester by Email to find out if that was possible. That was a while ago, and she has yet to respond.
The image you see above was downloaded from the internet, and found a place in a collection of images that I use for personal reference. Some (especially the creator) may consider the re-posting of such an image without the permission of the creator to be copyright infringement. But this is not actually the case, due to a little thing called “fair use”.
Fair use allows copyrighted works to be used without permission for the benefit of the public; that is, for the greater good. To quote Spock from the original Star Trek series, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
Section 107 of the Copyright Act states:
“The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”
Of course only a court would have final decision-making ability, but essentially that means that if you download a photo and critique it, or use it for other purposes that benefit the public while not interfering with the makers ability to reproduce the photo, display it publicly, prepare derivative works based on it, or distribute copies of the photo to the public by sale, rental or lending, then you’re good.
It drives photographers crazy.
But, it’s a fact of life. And the rule of law. But if you post your images online and discover someone else using them without critiquing them (whether it’s a good or bad critique) or for purposes other than those outlined above, you should reach out to them. On the other hand, if they are following the fair use provision, best to leave it alone. It could prove very expensive to take them to court, and there’s no guarantee you will win. The balance of power tips more heavily toward the public’s interest.
You can learn more by reading this very informative and well-written article on SocialMediaExaminer.com
