28
You guys! As of today I have been blogging for two whole years--whoa. See my very first post here (published on October 28th, 2012). If I had my stuff more together, I would have planned an awesome giveaway for you all…but I do not have my stuff together and I literally just realized my blogiversary was coming up yesterday. Sorry, guys!! There is something blogging-related that I had planned to talk about, though. It’s not nearly as fun, but still...I would love to get your thoughts on the topic. Warning, though: this post is a long one!
Last week, someone left a comment on this post that kind of surprised me and got me thinking. Here is what she said: IT'S NEVER OK TO POST AN IMAGE WITHOUT ASKING PERMISSION FROM THE OWNER. I dont care if you link to them you MUST ask permission or else you are infringing on copyrights! So obviously linking the pin or tumblr where you found it is even worse! You might want to read this if you dont believe me.
Like most bloggers (pretty much all of us, I’m guessing), I did not read a how-to manual before I started blogging, nor did I take classes in it or anything like that. I basically just looked at what other people were doing and figured it out as I went. When I started, it seemed like what everyone did was simply link to the original source when they posted a photo that wasn’t theirs. So I did the same thing...and still do. Sometimes, I reach out and get people's permission to feature them (like for house tours, interviews, or when I do a post that’s about one person’s work--for example, the Gemma Correll post I did last week). But for inspiration posts and color palettes that feature a mix of photos from all different people, I just track down the original sources as best I can and link to them at the bottom of the post. I’ve had a few people email me to update the links, and once, I had someone ask me to take down her photos. I figured as long as I complied with those requests right away, that I was covered.
Apparently not. This girl’s comment, and the post she linked to, have made me feel uneasy and kind of sad about the future of blogging. Part of what I loved about blogs when I first started reading them, was the sense of community and discovery. Most of my favorite blogs didn’t just post photos of their own homes…they also shared other people’s homes, forecasted trends, and introduced me to new people to follow, new stores to shop at, and new ideas to incorporate into my own home. Many of them did share photos of their own lives, but these more personal posts were mixed in with other inspirational posts.
I’ve always felt that the magic was in the mix, and I’ve tried to do something similar here. Sure, I would like to post more original content (if only our bodies didn’t require sleep!), but even if I did blog full-time, I wouldn’t want to post only photos that I took myself. You see, I like the inspiration posts. I don’t post them because I’m too lazy to take my own photos, but because I think it’s fun and interesting to see what other people are doing and talk about what I’m seeing out there in the design world...trends, common threads, and clever ideas. If I only shared photos of my own house every day, I’m pretty sure you would get bored of it. I would get bored of it.
One of my favorite bloggers, Holly of Decor8, wrote a post on a similar topic awhile ago, so I tracked it down. Here’s a little bit of what she said…because she’s much more eloquent than me:
"I’ve long been a champion of sharing and not so much in support of this new idea that every blogger must only blog custom content with projects and photos produced by them. Some blogs only accept exclusive content. Other blogs won’t share what another blogger posted no matter how much they loved it because they are scared to upset someone or appear like a copycat...
How can we influence something or adopt it if we fear writing about it because another blogger already covered it? How can we discuss trends if no one has images to share supporting those discussions unless they take these images themselves – and because they don’t have the images they clam up? Many voices combined can start a wave of change; launch a new idea, etc. To be innovators, we have to share our ideas with our tribe and our tribe, in turn, must share with their tribe, and so on. This is how popular trends are kick–started.
What made us strong should be embraced still: This is why blogging became popular in the first place. We talked, we shared, we made noise. If we all become fearful or run our blogs like they are magazines where only exclusive content is featured and we refuse to share something another blogger covered, what will that mean for blogging?
We aren’t magazines. We don’t need to be. We are in our own class and that is how it should be because we can spontaneously share and create a very specific energy that can only be shared spontaneously. Planning out every post, organizing shoot days and complicated videos for every single post, and constantly stressing over “exclusive content” and “columns” can really hold lots of bloggers back...I’d say that in the end, we should strive to share in a way that is considerate and fair to others while also opening up the way for conversations can take place. Link back, credit photographers, credit the source if you know it, shoot your own photos if you can but use others with permission when you can’t, talk about topics others may be talking about. SHARE!"
I fully agree with what Holly says, and I know that for myself as a reader, I feel very sad about the idea of blogs becoming islands of “original content,” ignoring what everyone else is doing. I do understand the importance of giving credit where credit is due, and I’m going to start emailing for permission before sharing any photo. I’m thinking of going back through all my past posts and emailing people for permission on those too, just to cover my bases (I don’t want to get sued, after all). But the thought of that makes me as a blogger sad…it means so much more of my time (which is already very limited) will be spent emailing people, following up with those emails, and waiting to hear back…rather than being able to write a post the night before and focus on what’s inspiring me in the moment.
I also feel sad if bloggers in general get too scared to share other people’s content. It makes me happy to see my photos on Pinterest or on other blogs…after all, my goal is to inspire people! Sure, if I see a photo that's miscredited or not credited at all, I would probably send an email asking the blogger to link to At Home in Love. But as long as images are properly linked, it makes me feel honored to see them around the web!
How do you feel about all of this? Does it bother you to see your images shared on other blogs if they haven’t asked for your permission first? Do you ask permission before you post anyone else’s photo? Or do you only share your own photos? I’m very curious to hear how everyone else approaches this.
Sorry so long!
P.S. Yes, the photo I included is my own. It’s from this post.
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yay! comments are back.
i absolutely agree with your sentiments. i do think photos should be credited with original authors and if you can't find one through back-links, i do think you should do a google image search for the same image to uncover the original. to me, though, crediting the creator in an obvious way is enough. i want to make content that's shared and used. i don't want people to pass off their content as my own - easily addressed with credit links.
i think that you do it the right way, whatever the law says aside, and that we should encourage sharing and creativity, not hoarding of content. it's a weird issue as legality is involved, but i think that sharing of content is what makes the web a crazy awesome place.
Thanks, Kelsey! Agreed…sharing is totally better then hoarding…but you’re right, the legality aspect makes this issue really weird.
Oh wow. I totally agree with you. This makes me very sad too. Similar to you, I love putting together posts talking about what's inspiring me right now and sharing the beautiful photos I find somewhere else. I'm not doing it to "steal" someone else's work or to take credit for it as my own. I do it because I like to talk about what I love. I always link back to the original source whenever humanly possible, which I thought was enough. It makes me so sad to think of not being able to do that anymore.
A lot of blogs I've seen, including mine, have a disclaimer that says something like, "feel free to share images or content as long as you credit properly"... so I would think if a blog has that disclaimer, you wouldn't need to ask permission, right? Who has time for all those emails?!
I guess I don't really even see the point of posting a photo at all if you don't want to share it with anyone else. I make things and take pictures and write blog posts so people will look at them, and if they like them, maybe they'll share them and talk about them. The things I want to keep to myself, I don't put on the internet. Maybe I'm being naive, but as long as it's properly credited, I have a hard time seeing what's so bad.
Thanks for talking about this, Aileen. I'm also very curious to see what other people say.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Kerry! I totally agree--I share things I love, because I like to talk about what I love. I might not want a stranger sharing private photos of my kids (future kids, that is), but then again, I probably wouldn’t post something on the internet if I didn’t feel comfortable with it being shared. But that’s me…I guess I can’t assume that is how everyone feels.
This makes me really, really sad. I can't imagine one blogger doing this to another, because I also learned from the very beginning that there's a communal understanding about image sharing standards. It's all a part of how we grow audiences and get a bigger discussion going, and who doesn't want that?! My blog would NOT have as many readers as it does now if it weren't for the kind people that have shared my images with proper credit, which I'm SO grateful for. FOR REAL. I didn't give prior permission for most of the shares, but I think that's the thing- had we already enforced strict monitoring against this, I'd bet the majority of those shares would not have happened :(
I also enjoy the discovery aspect of it and seeing the way bloggers curate their finds- it's practically an art form, one that I very much enjoy following. It would be tragic to see a decrease in this core aspect of blogging.
Yes, exactly! I for sure would not have been able to grow this blog without other bloggers linking to me, as well. I always found those shares to be nice surprises, and was always (still am) very grateful when I came across them.
Happy two years!
I agree Aileen. I understand people getting uptight over 'stolen credit, and posts' -- that's an obvious no-no. But I think for the most part bloggers are generous with credit due. Someone made me feel so awful after I linked to her in a post of my own. I thought I went above and beyond crediting her tons, and that it woud be a high compliment. Instead of maybe giving me her opinion of my post (and some kind suggestions for next time) - I felt she gave me a scolding. Really took me off guard. I felt horrible.
I was honored, when blogging, if others linked to me. I simply wanted to do for someone else and share the love. I sought out the opinions of some other bloggers - some I didn't even know that well - and they said they didn't have issue at all with how I linked. But honestly it made me not want to bother for a while. So I didn't.
Thank you, Kerry! And thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this. What you said about feeling off guard and discouraged is exactly how I felt when I read that comment…
I sometimes wonder if people go that far over crediting their photos, why do not not use simple watermarks or put their names on them? I always put a link to all images now or try to use my own as much as possible. If we all tried to contact the source of the photo to ask permission to use them, the owner would soon get very fed up with requests and start ignoring them. I wanted to post some items from a furniture store once and emailed them but they never replied so I didn't post about them- opportunity missed for free promotion.
All things nice...
That is true…actually, I have missed a few emails like that before because I’m just so busy and I often check my email on my phone, so sometimes things get marked as read and fall off my radar when in fact I never responded. And I’m sure I don’t even get near the number of emails that some bigger bloggers do! Their whole day could be filled with just responding to emails…
This post has put into words how I feel so beautifully.
When i started my blog (9 months ago) I would share images of things I found around the net to inspire people, and that inspired me, and also to spark conversation around idea's and those inspirations. That is until i was contacted by a lawyer because a photographer had seen an image I used of his. You see I belong to a wine club and we went to a wine bar in my town and I used an image off the wine bars site to do a review. i thought nothing of it. I had my own images as well I just didn't have an interior image. Anywho I was sent a cease and desist letter asking me for $2,000 for using the image. I ended up getting a lawyer who referenced "fair use" and I never heard from the photog or the lawyer again. Part of me feels like they were trying to hustle me out of $2,000 and part of me feels like there are appropriate times when you can use another persons photo's. In my instance I was reviewing a place so therefore "fair use" was plausible.
The whole experience left me feeling so yucky though and I took down every post on my page that was not done by me originally. Since then I have found it very hard to post because like you said who has the man power or the time to take all of their own pictures or style shoots like some of the bigger blogs? And at the end of the day who wants to post from only their perspective anyway? I get inspired by people like you do, and I'm more than willing to give credit where it's due.
I belong to a lot of blog groups on social media and this is a hot topic and I think it's one that should be revisited and talked about. I like one of your commentors idea's of putting a disclaimer on your blog stating whether or not pictures can be used as long as they are credited back. Maybe if more bloggers worked together this could be a resolvable issue.
Thank you for this post I feel not so alone in my disappointment and feelings about the matter
That’s crazy that actually happened to you! What a nightmare. And I’m encouraged to hear that other blog groups are discussing the same topic. Hopefully something good will come out of all the discussion!
I totally agree with you! One of my favorite things about blogging is the sense of community I've come to find. I would be honored to have another blogger want to feature my content and pictures on their site. Obviously sources should always be credited (linking back to original pictures), but why are we putting the content out there if not to be shared?
Right?! I think I’m realizing that most bloggers are putting their content out there with the intent to inspire and the expectation that it will be shared…but maybe not photographers, who are putting their work out with the intent of making money and building a business on the photos themselves. But then again, I guess you can’t even assume that all bloggers are fine with re-blogging. So much to think about...
Here's a perspective from a non-blogger: I love your blog "style" of posting inspirational things. I think you've got a really good thing going on! Your blog is totally one of my favorites. It's very refreshing, for lack of a better term, to visit it and see what you have put together. I like hearing your thoughts about things you've found, as well. I feel that you "curate" cool and pretty stuff. It's a talent to locate good/pretty/interesting items and to leave out stuff that is not. Also, Emily Henderson recently had several photos of spaces folks styled (for Target) and links to their blogs. Maybe she got permission for each photo, but I assumed not.
Thanks, Liz! That means a lot. And I really appreciate hearing your perspective as a reader!
Happy blog birthday Aileen! And thanks for this thoughtful post, I totally agree with your point of view!
To be honest, I haven't yet used images on my blog that aren't my own, but I'd really like to someday (with proper credit given of course). And when that happens, I'd feel so much better if I was able to do that without the fear that someone is going to accuse me of breaching copyright.
As a newbie blogger, I know that most of the traffic that comes my way is from other lovely bloggers sharing my content. I love that the projects I make inspire others enough to want to share those DIYs with their readers - to me it's flattering!
I also find I'm drawn to the posts on other blogs that curate content from around the web - Friday round-ups are some of my favourite reads! I'd be sad if those kinds of posts went away because of restrictions in sharing content.
I hope you haven't been discouraged in keeping with the way you blog because of that reader's comment - I love the way At Home In love is, exactly as it is right now :)
Thanks, Stephanie! Your blog is SO CUTE, by the way. New follower here! I'm not discouraged per se, the comment just threw me off a little and made me start thinking about this topic. So glad to hear you like At Home in Love :) That means a lot.
I hope this all gets sorted out legally so you all can continue doing what you love. I love to read a few blogs and love to see what they've discovered. I don't want to spend the time as it's just a passing interest to me. I get the benefit from you all spending time ;). It's a crazy world we live in. It will be interesting to see how this changes today's trend. Stay happy!
Thanks, Debbie!
Hmm. Well...
1: Happy blog birthday!!!!!!
2: What is this world coming to?! How frustrating! I came across this issue when a bride emailed me asking me to post her wedding photos, she told me she had the rights to them, blah blah blah. Well literally 3 hours after the post went up, the photographer emailed me asking me to please ask her before I posted any more of her photos, and warned me to be careful with others in the future. Up until that point I HAD been asking permission, and this really irked me! I kind of lost 'blog steam' since then, it turned it into something that wasn't nearly as enjoyable for me. It really made me consider what is important to me, and where I want to spend my energy every day, and it also made me really sad, because I had so much fun blogging prior to that! Why can't people chill and get over themselves!? ARGHHHHHHHH
3. Miss you!!!! :)
1. Thank you!!
2. Ugh, sorry you had to deal with that...
3. Miss you too!!!!
One of the best parts about reading blogs is discovering other blogs through cross-postings. It's how many blogs find their readership. I don't know what makes some people freak out so bad.
Oh, I feel so sorry for you for getting such a negative comment. And I totally agree with your feelings too. A while ago I kind of had the same experience where a girl emailed me saying I linked to the wrong link. Apparently I had used one of her pictures and I was wrong to link to the wrong source. Stupid of me, but I felt very sad and a bit awkward about this negative encounter. I also felt like the blogging community is a fun place to be, where content is made to share as much as possible, only if you link to the right source. And that's ok, no? We're not machines. Even I am blogging in the wee late hours, after my two boys have gone to bed. If you have to start mailing every single person who has taken a picture, you'll be busy for the rest of your life. Than blogging has no future anymore. And by the way, who has time for so many mails anyway? ;-)
I think you are doing it the right way Aileen and I love love loooove reading your blog!! Do what feels right and remember: I am too sharing content and addressing with the credit links. Just like so many of us out there! I hope you will keep continue to blog about what inspires you (just like I am planning to), you rock Aileen!
Hugs, Inge x
I'm amazed at how many BIG sites use our images without asking. Buzzfeed, Brit & Co, etc. I don't mind at all, obviously, and I'm flattered when others want to share my work. But if it's such a huge issue, you'd think those guys would be more careful about it!
Love your blog and your inspirational posts. Keep it up!
What a nice post!
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Thank you so much for sharing such an amazing post with us for free.
Keep it up!