Trinidad Carnival Diary has been around since 2006 and during that time I have taken thousands of photographs of band launches and costumes. The idea of watermarking my photographs was a concern in the beginning as I did not want my photographs to be stolen and not have proper credit as the source of said photographs.
However as the MAIN reason I take the photographs so that others who are unable to attend the band launch or mas camp can get a first and close up look of costumes I decided against ruining the photographs with a watermark emblazoned across it. I mean a tiny watermark at the bottom of the photograph could suffice as well but it can easily be cropped out if someone wanted to reuse the photograph for their own purpose.
Generally I have no problem with anyone reusing my photographs to share with friends and family, post on Facebook (though some people do ask my permission first) , on chat groups and forums. It would be nice to have a credit as the source but once it is for NON Profit and it is not a professional organisation, in the spirit of the internet I have no problem sharing. I too sometimes post photographs on the Blog and I always try to at least include a photo source or I will email the owner of the photograph and ask for permission to use.
I do have a problem when my photographs are used for PROFIT that is to sell/advertise goods, service or a product, but I have made exceptions if the person/s were kind enough to first send me an email asking my permission to use the photographs .
So, imagine my surprise when I stumble upon my photographs on the website for the National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago being used to link TRIBE and I never gave my permission for the photographs to be used in this way:
click for large view
As a common courtesy I at least expected being credited as the source of the photographs. ALL the photographs can be found on both my Facebook Fanpage and photobucket album, an email would have been nice, especially from a professional organisation as this since they have to their website Copyright © 2010, The National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago. All Rights Reserved. One would also expect that a professional organisation as this would be quite familiar with Intellectual Property; lets see if they respond to MY email!
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