Three days ago I get the following email regarding our Wildfire Haze picture. The text reads interesting, NowPublic looks like a citizen journalism site :
:: Your California wildfire photo Hi Mark & Marie Finnern, Here’s a personal note from <name withheld>: _____________________________________ We’re running a news story about the wildfires in Northern California, and your photo would be a great addition. Would you be interested in sharing it? In case you haven’t heard of us, NowPublic is a participatory news website. The requested photo(s) will appear as thumbnails when you follow the link. Please let me know if you have any questions. Take care, Rob please click on this link – where you can approve or reject its use:
____________________________________________________________NowPublic is a news sharing community that uses stories, photos, & videos from sources like you.If you would like to learn more about this request, and the context in which your photo might be used, click on this link: http://www.nowpublic.com/import/4868164c2addb7.62822270
If you do give your permission, your photo will always remain your property, and whatever license you have specified will follow its use on NowPublic.com If you have any concerns about this, please contact our Quality Assurance Coordinator at quality@nowpublic.com ———————————————————— Picture taken by Mark & Marie Finnern.
Now our licensing is a Creative Commons one: Attribution & share alike aka link back to our picture on Flickr when you use it.
Of course I felt flattered, so I clicked on the link. First frustration instead of just a link to agree that the requester can use the picture, you get a sign up sheet. Grudgingly I filled it out, having been around the internet block for a while I should have stopped right there, but I was curious, wanted to know how the whole process works.
NowPublic used my information to create a Mark & Marie Finnern account on their site. If you look at the profile it shows the two pictures that were requested as uploaded by us. That is of course not true, someone from the NowPublic network has requested to use the picture in a story, that is different than me going around uploading my pictures to different sites.
Second problem is, that there is no link back to our flickr page, at least that I could find. If you click on the picture you get a run around and get back to our NowPublic account. A clear violation of our original creative commons copyright.
Third there is no mention of the copyright settings of our pictures, the big claim:
If you do give your permission, your photo will always remain your property, and whatever license you have specified will follow its use on NowPublic.com
Is a hollow promise, as no copyrights are shown.
All that left me frustrated. I think the concept Citizen Journalism is an interesting one and NowPublic has most of the elements in place: Rating, voting, top contributors, rookie separation, … But the way they suck you into their site and their not so clean UI will keep me away, especially far away from contributing anything.
P.S. One thing they did good: They asked whether it is O.K. to post a comment that links back to their story on the pictures that they have choosen:
NowPublic says: Thank you for sharing your photo!This photograph appears in a NowPublic news story:Firefighters in stalemate against Calif. fires.
Posted 4 days ago. ( permalink | delete )