Who owns intellectual property rights for our Instagram, Flickr

and Twitter photos?

Every decade of recent history seems

to have its own defining characteristic.

People talk about the Roaring 20s, the

Depression-stricken 30s, the free-spirited 60s, the

rise of IT in 2000s

The most defining characteristic of the

decade we are living in now is probably social

media.

We all love connecting with people, adding friends, and

most of all, sharing. Instagram, Facebook or Twitter are playing

a very important role on our screens and in our lives.

But living in a world where sharing thoughts, moments, or photos with millions of people is literally as easy

as tapping a button, privacy and intellectual property are two

concepts that are quite problematic.

THE PROBLEM!

Once you put a photo up on Instagram or Flickr, it seems to belong to the world. And it does, up to a point, in that

anyone else can see it.

Some people see an interesting photo on Instagram or Flickr and take it without asking if

they are allowed to or wondering whether they are doing the right thing or not.

A thousand shares later, the author of that photo might see their picture on the home page

of a website, without having any idea how it ended up there.

Or, even worse, they might see it in shop, as a

print on a T-shirt sold by a famous fashion brand all

over the world.

CASE STUDY!

This is what happened to Tuana Aziz, a commercial photographer

from Sweden, who discovered that the Spanish fashion brand

Mango was using one of his photos without his permission.

Aziz shared the photo on Instagram in August 2011

and made it his profile picture in February 2012.

Aziz came across the shirt featuring his photo in a

shop in Sweden and then discovered that the brand

was selling it online as well.

Aziz’s case is not unique, one of the most notorious case is probably the one

of Daniel Morel.

Morel was awarded $1.2M in the lawsuit against Agence

France-Presse, after the company used one of his Twitter photos without

permission.

As a photo-journalist, Morel took photos in Haiti, after the 2010

earthquake. One of his photos, depicting a native woman trapped

under the rubble, was pulled by AFP from his Twitter account and used

without his consent.

Given the fact that Morel was finally compensated after a 3 year lawsuit, this

case was a lucky one.

The same cannot be said about the AFP

representatives, who lost more than time and money.

They also lost some of their prestige and maybe the trust of their readers. And all of this because they did not think twice before using a Twitter

account that did not belong to them.

JOIN LOBSTER!

Lobster is trying to change this mindset and protect

intellectual property by convincing people in need of visual content that it is better

to buy than to steal.

As a buyer, you can purchase a license for a

photo for as little as $0.99 and use that photo as

many times as you want.

Licensing from users via Lobster gives you peace of

mind and keeps your lawyer or the lawyers of your

company headache-free.

Because Lobster wants to help us appreciate social

media for what it is: a place where information is exchanged, not stolen.

Join Lobster Marketplace and make sure you’re making history!

Share your stories of stolen social content with

us and we will publish them on our Facebook

page!