This weekend we went to the beach with my sister-in-law and their children. We had a wonderful afternoon and I took some photos, only three and none of them had any people in them. When we got back to my sister-in-law’s house I showed her my photos and she asked for a copy which I sent to her phone without any thought. Some minutes later I was shocked to find that she was uploading my photos to her facebook account. This made me really think about how the way we use photographs has really changed during my life time. When I was young we took photos and then took the film off for processing when we would usually get two sets of prints so that we could give people copies of photos they might be interested in. Occasionally we would have a photo that a number of family and friends would like a copy of an we would go back to the photo processing shop with the negatives and get some more copies and that would be it. There was no problem with people not respecting our copyright because we had control over the negatives and therefore the copies that were available. OK, so you could get a photocopy made or take a photo of a photo but still. Now, I think some people forget that they don’t have the right to do whatever we like with photos that are shared with them. I think that people forget that adding a photo to your facebook account is not personal use and that they should ask permission from the photographer. I am disappointed by her actions but I still think my photos are cute so I’m sharing them here with the information that these photos are copyright and I own the copyright.
To stop the beach balls blowing away we used a towel.
Add an extra ball and it starts looking like a baby.
Another view of the beach ball “baby”.