Spectral Convergence
Steal This Image!
Update (27 June 2011)
Well, whatever the motivation, 500px has just announced that they will institute right click protection. I hope that they also continue to listen to the users and artists. Good move 500px!
Update (23 June 2011)
It's been about a month since I posted this. Thought I might raise it again and see what people's thoughts on 500px are, especially those that have been using the site. Pros vs Cons? I personally find little value in 500px, due to a lack of the social element, and many of the people that have responded to my blog posts are just downright condescending. Let's hear your thoughts.
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I have been checking out the 500px photo site for a couple of weeks now and comparing the features to Flickr. While looking a little deeper into the site, I found that any user can freely download images with a few clicks of the mouse. While the images are displayed at 900 pixels on the longest side, this is sufficient to distribute or print, even up to 8" x 10". Apparently, there are no options to prevent anyone from freely saving images to a computer. While I understand that some people will actively steal images, and this has happened to many people on Flickr, simple deterrents will prevent most people from taking copyrighted material. I also understand, and have stated myself, that the ONLY true protection is to not post images on the internet, so no need to repeat that phrase. I do believe, however, that the majority of internet users will not go through the trouble of defeating safeguards if they are in place, and perhaps only need to be reminded that they are viewing copyrighted material.
I wrote to the staff of 500px with these concerns, and then also blogged about it within my homepage on 500px. The staff picked up on one of my tweets about the topic and a debate ensued. The link to the blog post is here, and you can read the responses for yourself:
Within the blog, the founder of 500px, Ian Sobolev responded with his opinions on the issue. I created a subsequent blog post outlining his statements and my concerns. In my Open Letter to Ian Sobolev, I have asked for clarification on his position and presented my feelings on the matter. The blog post is here:
As of May 28, 2011 I have not received a response from Mr. Sobolev, although I will give 500px several days to respond before cancelling my account.
I am very interested in hearing what Flickr users think about this issue. Remember that I am not expecting to have total prevention of downloading of images, there will always be a certain amount of that, but rather the merits of having "right-click" "save-as" functions disabled. In one of Ian's comments, he stated that this feature would ruin the user's experience. I have never once heard a similar statement or experienced this first hand on Flickr. I am also very curious to hear your thoughts on this issue. Feel free to post this to other groups which may be interested in a debate.
Please notice that the image above is Creative Commons Attribution. Feel free to download it, distribute it, invite it to groups, print it, make paper airplanes, whatever you want. After looking at the photo, some of you may want to buy a Detroit t-shirt, I did. If you want to buy one, check out the Red Bubble site for Jon DeBoer, aka .insomniac . Support your fellow artists.
Strobist info:
Flashpoint II 320M @ 1/8 in 30x60 softbox at 6:30
430 Ex II @ 1/8 at 12:00 pointed at BG
CyberSync triggers
Steal This Image!
Update (27 June 2011)
Well, whatever the motivation, 500px has just announced that they will institute right click protection. I hope that they also continue to listen to the users and artists. Good move 500px!
Update (23 June 2011)
It's been about a month since I posted this. Thought I might raise it again and see what people's thoughts on 500px are, especially those that have been using the site. Pros vs Cons? I personally find little value in 500px, due to a lack of the social element, and many of the people that have responded to my blog posts are just downright condescending. Let's hear your thoughts.
---------------------------------------------
I have been checking out the 500px photo site for a couple of weeks now and comparing the features to Flickr. While looking a little deeper into the site, I found that any user can freely download images with a few clicks of the mouse. While the images are displayed at 900 pixels on the longest side, this is sufficient to distribute or print, even up to 8" x 10". Apparently, there are no options to prevent anyone from freely saving images to a computer. While I understand that some people will actively steal images, and this has happened to many people on Flickr, simple deterrents will prevent most people from taking copyrighted material. I also understand, and have stated myself, that the ONLY true protection is to not post images on the internet, so no need to repeat that phrase. I do believe, however, that the majority of internet users will not go through the trouble of defeating safeguards if they are in place, and perhaps only need to be reminded that they are viewing copyrighted material.
I wrote to the staff of 500px with these concerns, and then also blogged about it within my homepage on 500px. The staff picked up on one of my tweets about the topic and a debate ensued. The link to the blog post is here, and you can read the responses for yourself:
Within the blog, the founder of 500px, Ian Sobolev responded with his opinions on the issue. I created a subsequent blog post outlining his statements and my concerns. In my Open Letter to Ian Sobolev, I have asked for clarification on his position and presented my feelings on the matter. The blog post is here:
As of May 28, 2011 I have not received a response from Mr. Sobolev, although I will give 500px several days to respond before cancelling my account.
I am very interested in hearing what Flickr users think about this issue. Remember that I am not expecting to have total prevention of downloading of images, there will always be a certain amount of that, but rather the merits of having "right-click" "save-as" functions disabled. In one of Ian's comments, he stated that this feature would ruin the user's experience. I have never once heard a similar statement or experienced this first hand on Flickr. I am also very curious to hear your thoughts on this issue. Feel free to post this to other groups which may be interested in a debate.
Please notice that the image above is Creative Commons Attribution. Feel free to download it, distribute it, invite it to groups, print it, make paper airplanes, whatever you want. After looking at the photo, some of you may want to buy a Detroit t-shirt, I did. If you want to buy one, check out the Red Bubble site for Jon DeBoer, aka .insomniac . Support your fellow artists.
Strobist info:
Flashpoint II 320M @ 1/8 in 30x60 softbox at 6:30
430 Ex II @ 1/8 at 12:00 pointed at BG
CyberSync triggers