instagram, flickr, linkedin + 3rd part aps on linkedin &C

yeah i know this might not be the best place to ask this but ...

i don't go on fleecebook very often unless there is a link and a public page
i gave up my membership when i had privacy issues there ( the settings being reset
to the default "public and open no privacy settings" every time i went off-site ) it might
have been before instagram started, i can't remember, im not involved there, not even sure
if i have been there before, but i am on linkked in although i don't upload any images ...
can anyone tell me what the licensing / ownership deal is these days? when i was on FB,
they claimed ownership and unfettered use of anything, text pictures &c that was uploaded to their
servers, i know they own instagram, do they still claim universal use? has it changed ?
i haven't ever uploaded anything on linkk ed in because i have never been able
to understand if they claim ownership or universal use, their 3rd party applications too.
does anyone here know what the deal is ?
i have an archive of 30+ years worth of documentary images i was thinking
of uploading eventually, but i don't want to lose ownership of them.
i know the deal that if it is online it is a freeforall, but i don't plan on putting very large images up ...
is there a website that details the ownership issues of these websites?
thanks

https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement?trk=hb_ft_userag

Section 3.1 seems to apply john:

linkedin said:

As between you and LinkedIn, you own the content and information that you submit or post to the Services and you are only granting LinkedIn the following non-exclusive license: A worldwide, transferable and sublicensable right to use, copy, modify, distribute, publish, and process, information and content that you provide through our Services, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or others.

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thanks pdeeh, it is legaleeze to say
you own it but we distribute it and after that its out of our hands ?

jnanian, why do you want to post your 30+ years of images? I ask this as a serious question, not in a general "why why" way. I mean, for what purpose?

This is an important question, I think. For you to ask yourself. We are all curious to know as well.

I went thru all this about seven years ago, with my architectural images. Looked into all those sites, and many others. In each and every case issues such as ownership of images, distribution and sale rights, site security and all the fiddly small detaisl in their user agreements were a concern to me, and eventually I decided to set up my own web site, for clients (mostly), password protected for additional security. To get the password for my site, you have to email me, and answer one or two basic questions (so I can determine your purpose in wanting to access my site). Many times my response email has been "respectfully declined" but I have also made contact with and acquired quite a few good ongoing clients this way. Respectable businesses such as book publishers all respect my attempts to protect my work, and have had no qualms about answering my (easy) questions, so my method has worked well for either party so far, touch wood.

I currently have a few hundred of my best images online in titled folders, and I regularly post (rotate) new folders. For the past year my site has seen only a little traffic, as one of the 'musts' with one's own web site is you must promote, promote, promote, and then promote some more. At my age, I now prefer to be out and about shooting while I still can. In a few years when a rocking chair and the cat on my lap have become a more comfortable option, I will think about scanning, post processing and posting. Maybe. If I'm still around and able to. If not, well, so what? There are gazillions of web sites like mine out there.

Apologies for having digressed somewhat here. I meant to say, if you expect clients to drop by and pore over your latest post, then you will have to market yourself, as I have found I must do. This has to be ongoing, and it can be both time consuming and even annoying at times. Regular infusions of good red wine helps.

As for 'visitors', my statistics tell me eight or nine out of ten visitors are casual browsers, non-business clients looking for images to enjoy or, alas, want to copy and use) to every bonafide business client or would-be client. Such is life. I've had to live with this.

If on the other hand, you intend to post for family and friends to enjoy, this is an entirely different game, and will be much easier for you, not to overlook heaps cheaper.

Whatever you decide, please look at it as an enjoyable and even fun project. I hope you will achieve the results you want and whatever success you aim to, with it.

I agree with ozmoose (I would also like to know your reasons John) and I share his point of view in his following words.

If I may add a few words myself, let me say that in my case I do not care about promotion, I do not care about those "social"(?) tools (I am not saying that those things can't help, of course they do if you decide to climb up the ecclesiastical ladder of success) but I always say this: There is only one person interested in what you do: YOU (that's precisely what you'll find - perhaps - in the last step of that ladder).

Anyway, to answer your unrest OP questions John, when we talk about the internet "Secure protection, is out of the question", but if your decision is already taken, don't worry! think that there are ways to make your work to have your identity. Whatever your protection way is, I'm sure that it won't prevent at all for a bad use of others, however it will say loud and clear that it is a private property. There are several ways to warn the rest "If you use something without my authorithation I will take action" you are saying to the rest with this, that you're taking care of your work (and taking care of yourself with it)

Do not let the money (to win) - nor the copyright - make you see (or show) your work differently!

Best of luck!

ozmoose and lag

i ask because as i mentioned in my opening post,
i have 3 decades worth of documentary work that
are in libraries and archives already, and to be honest
i would like others ( people doing research &c ) to be able to
find these images as well. my profession since 1991 has been
documenting sites and structures for federal and state archives, and since 1981
i had been doing the same thing on my own. i have been in contact
with others in my field over the years and they have suggested finding a public
repository, but knowing about public collections being housed in a building
at some sort of historical society or state library creates access issues, so people who
might need to see images, might not be able to see them because the library
charges $$ or has odd hours, or is 3000 miles away.
so i have thought about creating my own online library, like the gepes-lynch collection at MIT
( on flickr ) not only becasue it is similar work but because people who might need to see it
will be able to see it ... i haven't been on FB in years because i had concerns with their privacy issues,
and ive never been on instagram except to browse a little when directed there, and while i have
a professional presence on linkedin, i have shyed away from uploading anything because their agreements are sort of are murky at best.
i've talked to friends and others in my field ( documentary photography ) over the years and they seem not
to care about if linkedin or instagram or Facebook claims they own or can do whatever they want with their images
but i do care if my work is being used to advertise someone or something i don't agree with,
so i was wondering if anyone had a better idea than me what the user agreements actually stated
at these places since their legaleeze makes no sense to me other than pass the buck.
i know flickr allows for private password protection, and it seems like a safe bet, but the others, are places
i have been told i should put the images too, because of ez access ... but ez access to me might be too ez and not "private" enough.
i'm aware that i have a website, and post images here and those issues concerning happen on a regular basis.
my website has been around for just shy of 25 years and i make it a point not to put big images anywhere .... so maybe i have answered my own questions?
upload small images and don't worry about it , like others i know .. but i'd like to know what i am not worrying about i guess...

In 2013 the german photographers association Freelens had to go to court in Germany to stop Facebook deleting IPCT data from photofiles. It took them until half a year ago to get a final court decision against Facebok.

Jnanian,

I've got another angle on this, which might or might not be something to consider, just throwing this idea into the conversation: This sounds like a nice thing to do as a research project. An archive of that kind, maybe with some sensible connections/integrations with the official state archives, etc. might already exists you might be able to contribute your images to. I'd start looking in the field of "Digital/Cultural Heritage" research. Sites like researchgate.net or academia.edu might help finding projects, research groups or individuals interested in that kind of stuff.

Andi

AgX said:

In 2013 the german photographers association Freelens had to go to court in Germany to stop Facebook deleting IPCT data from photofiles. It took them until half a year ago to get a final court decision against Facebok.

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yep ...

The thought occurs to me: What if "the internet" didn't exist but you wanted to do the same thing?
What did people do 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago when they wanted to make their life's work available in the public domain as widely as possible, but not lose their rights or invite theft?
(yes, I know some people will say "but it isn't the same now so what's the point in thinking about that?" ... which would precisely miss the point, which is to trigger some lateral or nonlinear thinking about the problem john has set himself)

pdeeh said:

The thought occurs to me: What if "the internet" didn't exist but you wanted to do the same thing?

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That's a good point! a very good thought indeed.

pdeeh said:

What did people do 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago when they wanted to make their life's work available in the public domain as widely as possible, but not lose their rights or invite theft?

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Well, they manily used magazines, or books ... with their own copyrights included. But today, with the unavoidable reference of Dr. Technology, all this happens very fast and easy! The very same Dr that allows us to have those magazines and books - and their violated rights with them - with a simple click ... for free!

hi pdeeh

i've done what i would have done 15-30 years ago already
a lot of this work is in archives and libraries already, i just wanted
it to be "more available" than the local archives and the library of congress
and states'/commonwealth's archives, someplace online and not intimidating. or begging for a donation.
some of these images are already been scanned and are on library-archive-sites ...
but i figure if it was ALL available from 1-place, like nishan bichajian's work at MIT, that would be great.

i'm actually waiting for a call-back from the good folks at MIT who are involved with usage/copyright &c
maybe they can suggest a way to wade through this ...

Don't the library of Congress have quite significant amounts of photographic material available online for free?

It seems a fair number of museums have been "digitizing" their collections and putting them online, perhaps you could work some sort of a deal with one that features the sort of subject matter you have. When I visited the National Music Museum in Vermilion SD this summer, there was a whole crew working in a large side room with some amazing looking digi-gear. I was told by a staff member that they were a contracted service producing files that would allow an online viewer to rotate the instrument 360º and see it from all sides. (Would I could have hung out a few hours and learned more!)

One could also just do their own website, but from a "greater good of society" viewpoint, I worry that many one-off collections by individuals (including physical objects) wind up without a planned future and get dispersed or junked when the collector fades away. (I know of instances of that happening.)

~andi said:

Jnanian,

I've got another angle on this, which might or might not be something to consider, just throwing this idea into the conversation: This sounds like a nice thing to do as a research project. An archive of that kind, maybe with some sensible connections/integrations with the official state archives, etc. might already exists you might be able to contribute your images to. I'd start looking in the field of "Digital/Cultural Heritage" research. Sites like researchgate.net or academia.edu might help finding projects, research groups or individuals interested in that kind of stuff.

Andi

Click to expand...

hi ~andi
thanks for the suggestion/s !
we are on the same wavelength