Just thinking out loud

[wowie]

Just thinking out loud about reposting  / crediting  / and privacy issues, since it's come up a bit with some recent pics in a couple of places.

I see a lot of "please credit me if you repost", and while the first person always tends to credit, beyond that it usually gets lost where pictures originally come from.  Sometimes things aren't credited in the first place either at all or correctly, and that does put the one who's posted in a bad light. It irritates me to no end when I've credited the proper source and one repost later the credit is given to someone/someplace else. Another annoyance,crediting Live Journal? At last count there were over 10.5 million live journals.

So other than a watermark, is there any way to make sure whomever needs to be credited maintains that credit? Probably not.  Sad thing is, some folks lift the big glorious hi res pictures that are out there, and sell other people's pictures on eBay. Talk about criminal!

I get the impression most folks seem to think anything found on the web is public property anyway, and don't seem to give a rat's ass about saving where something came from just so long as they save it (invariably a picture), and so they save whatever and post it in six months when they've forgotten where it came from, and hopefully whomever they 'borrowed' it from doesn't realize it's even been lifted.

Then there's the issue of who's fair game to post.  Viggo? Henry? Other celebs? Fans in the pic? How do you know if someone is a 'fan', or is in actuality a celebrity? (Look at the invasive pics of Dom / Evie / Viggo / Henry & who knows who else from last autumn. Who the heck are those other people?) Most likely there's no clue who the other folks are, so is it in your best interest post anyone else? Even with their permission? Pictures get around, this I know for a fact, after meeting two gals who didn't realize their picture with a certain actor/artist had traveled the internet and were a bit disconcerted they were recognized.

Then again, maybe folks allow their pictures to be used on a public site because they want to be recognized?

Hey, I know you! I saw your picture on the ______ site!

Anyway... pardon my cranky meanderings...