Setting the rules

 

Foreword to all my non-Catalan or Spanish speaking friends:

This will be an English resume of my blog texts. Please by kind with me about my grammar skills, and never doubt in suggesting any correction for the mistakes you may find.

And, about the subject of this post, do not forget that I’m writing from the south of Pyrenees…

 

This is a subject long time ago kept in my mind, and I was thinking about waiting a little to touch it, but now is the moment because, one more time, a colleague has troubles about one of his pictures being published for a brand in a social media without permission.

Something that happens too often.

“Things are for free in socials” some say, “It is not my job” others say, “I didn’t know” say some supposed to be professionals that should be knowing…

Usually, the photographer is a nice guy until the moment to ask for money compensation arrives.

It shouldn’t be like that, but most photographers have no trouble about the use of a picture by a particular in a personal post

But a different thing is when this person has – or looks for – any kind of sponsor and then, he tags or mention brands. Then this post becomes a commercial action, and is the brand who have to provide the pictures, paying for them, as some brands do. Apply the same concept to the so-called influencers.

And then we have brands and distributors that keep their media without assuming what that does mean. In the past, they wouldn’t propose an add with a non-authorized picture. Why in socials is like that? More than Internet’s “free of charge concept” there’s the incompetence of some professionals, some so-called community manager, who (no matter if the essence of their job is managing images) they have no idea of what are they doing when they use a stolen picture (stolen = without authorization). And when advised, some try to make appear the photographer as de evil one.

Only for educational purposes a picture can be used without permission, and a commercial post in a brand’s profile have not “educational purpose”.

There’s no money to keep a social media profile? Let’s forget about it. Ah! You need it for your company? Think about a budget for that. Ah! There’s no budget? Then, there’s no social media. Is that simple.

A different think is non-professional photographers that corrupt the market giving their work for free. But this is another point and I will be back on it in the future.

It’s a little sad talking about that in a second post in a blog. But when it’s necessary, it must be done.