My Monday Muse posts might be in jeopardy. I read a blog over the weekend written by a lady who was sued for using a picture she didn't have the rights to. She ended up having to go through her history of blog posts to remove every single picture that she either didn't have the rights to or that she hadn't taken herself. Suck! The legal battle lasted months and cost her a lot of money she didn't have. Yes, she had a disclaimer posted on her blog that she claimed no rights to the pics she used. Yes, when she was contacted by the owner of the pic and asked to remove it, she promptly did so. And yes, the owner still sued her, anyway, under the premise that she was using the pic for promotional purposes and could have gained financially from doing so.
Soooo...it looks like my Monday Muse posts might have to go the way of the dinosaur. Which is too bad, because all you lovely fans seem so enjoy them as much as I do. Rest assured that making the decision to stop posting the muse is a hard one, but I can't withstand a legal battle right now, and that's one I would lose if anyone ever wanted to push the issue.
Some models, such as Andrei Andrei, seem to be really cool about their pics being used. And I have a feeling Andrei has become so successful and popular as a model because role players on Facebook have been using his image for years. In role play (RP) and author circles, everyone knows who he is. You just have to say, Andrei, and everyone knows who you're talking about. But here's the kicker: Andrei doesn't own the rights to his pictures. The photographers do. So even if he is fine with his picture being used, his photographers might not be, as I found out as I tried to get permission from one of his photographers to use a pic she had taken of him on my upcoming novella, Micah's Calling. The photographer would not give permission and wanted me to pay a healthy chunk to use the pic, so I had to pass.
This is certainly an interesting subject, but it's one that could change the face of blogging, because a lot of bloggers use "man candy" and model images (and other images) they don't have rights to on their blogs. And the repercussions for RPers can be even more severe if photographers and/or models begin to go after those using their images/pics for the faces of their characters.
If it happened to this blogger, it could happen to others.
It's a sad day in Blogville. :(
Donya, I like to use pics from sites that tell you it's okay as long as they have a credit for it. I also have an account with a site that allows me to buy pics. In the beginning, I used a lot of pics I found on searches. But, things like this frighten me, too.
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