Copyright is intended to protect the creator of an original work. It certainly attempts to do its best for the large entertainment companies. When applied to the one of the most exciting things to happen in recent memory—the sheer mass of creativity that is being unleashed by the general public on the Internet—its default protection is something akin to that provided by a piece of tissue paper when an elephant sneezes.
The vast majority of the photographs on Flickr and other photo sharing sites, probably something like 99.999999% of them, are in a state which results in effectively zero protection by U.S. copyright law.
"But wait...", you say. "That's not right. Every creative work is protected by copyright from the moment it is created."
The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who is part of the Fine Art Photoblog, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.
Don’t just parrot the same comments over and over.
© Neil Creek
One of the ten things I hate about Flickr is people who don’t know how to comment on photos. In a recent post to my blog, I lamented the number of comments I receive on my photos which consist of only one or two words: “Frankly, I don’t care if you think my photo’s “Awesome!”, I care even less if you think it’s a “Cool photo”. I’ve put a lot of work into it, I’d genuinely like to know what you think of it and why. If you’re going to comment, why not take the extra 30 seconds, engage your brain, and say something insightful.”
