TwitPic is claiming a "worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license" on all images uploaded to the service, as the firm signs a deal with celebrity photo agency WENN
Author: Olivier Laurent
11 May 2011 Tags: Twitter
This article has been updated on 12 May at 10am [GMT] with comments from WENN's CEO Lloyd Beiny. Click here to jump to the update.
“In what was a hotly contested tender, we are extremely pleased to be selected as the exclusive photo agency partner of TwitPic," says Lloyd Beiny, CEO of WENN. The deal will give WENN exclusive rights to sell images posted on the TwitPic service.
It comes hours after the image-sharing website was hit by a storm of criticism for claiming the copyright on all content published on TwitPic, forcing CEO Noah Everett to alter the site's terms and conditions and clarify his position. "We recently made changes to our terms of service that has caused some confusion for our users," he writes. "We've updated our terms again to be more clear and to also show that you still own your content. Our goal with TwitPic from the beginning has been to create the best way to share your photos and videos on Twitter and to always keep our user's best interest at the forefront."
He adds: "To clarify our ToS regarding ownership, you the user retain all copyrights to your photos and videos, it's your content. Our terms state by uploading content to TwitPic you allow us to distribute that content on twitpic.com and our affiliated partners."
The terms and conditions now read: "You retain all ownership rights to Content uploaded to TwitPic. However, by submitting Content to TwitPic, you hereby grant TwitPic a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and TwitPic's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels."
Everett also attributes the changes to the success of TwitPic in helping spread breaking news photographs. "As we've grown, TwitPic has been a tool for the spread of breaking news and events. Since then we've seen this content being taken without permission and misused. We've partnered with organizations to help us combat this and to distribute newsworthy content in the appropriate manner."
According to Beiny, that's when WENN comes in. "There has been much unauthorised use of TwitPic images which we shall be addressing without delay. The belief by some that any photo posted on Twitter is available at no cost is completely wrong but now as result of this new arrangement, anyone wishing to publish celebrity photos posted on Twitter via TwitPic will be able to do so legitimately via WENN.”
However, it remains unclear whether TwitPic users can opt out of the scheme. Emails to TwitPic remained unanswered as we publish this article. Following numerous requests for comment, WENN's CEO has addressed the controversy on 12 May, denying that its deal with TwitPic will affect the majority of users. "I feel many commentators have gotten a firm grip of the wrong end of the stick concerning the WENN/TwitPic arrangement," he says. "Under [this arrangement], WENN is only permitted to distribute images posted by a very small number of celebrities, so 99.99999999% of TwitPic users remain totally unaffected by the arrangement."
However, both companies have failed to clarify whether copyright owners - the people who have taken the photos or uploaded them on TwitPic - will receive a share of the proceeds generated when sold through WENN.
Earlier this year, WENN signed a similar deal with Plixi, another service used to post images on Twitter. According to Amateur Photographer magazine, Beiny said that "Plixi first approached WENN to 'see if we could help them out, after noticing that newspapers, magazines and websites increasingly publish images taken by celebrities from Twitter for free and without permission."
Beiny didn't "rule out selling on other types of Twitter images to the wider media, such as pictures of a breaking news story, if it were brought to its attention, whether featuring a celebrity or not," according to Amateur Photographer. "It [the agreement with Plixi] applies to all pictures but unless it is something really exceptional it is unlikely we would be interested in anything other than a celebrity," Beiny told the UK-based magazine.
"Our users best interest in mind"?!?
How is agreeing to sell somebody else's images, via an agency, and not paying or crediting the original artists having their best interests in mind?
The original creator may well own the copyright still but has to give worldwide rights to twitpic to do what they like! Who's best interest in mind is that? Hmmmmmm..... let me think.......
You get complete rights over your image, so long as you agree that we can do whatever we want with it. That's insultingly stupid...
Let me get this this straight - Twitpic and it's affiliates can now make money off my photo's royalty free (I get nothing!!) in perpetuity... I don't think so.
I disagree with your terms of service - photo's and account now deleted.
No I don't agree to letting Twitpic use my images as they see fit. Therefore, I am closing my account.
I will be sure to find another photo sharing site that doesn't think they can take my property and sell it as their own.
I'd be less irritated if this was an opt-in program that actually shared the generated revenue. If Twitpic asked permission to sell my photo and split the proceeds then I doubt so many people would be so pissed off about it.
I predict Twitpic will lose a huge number of users as a result of this bad, bad business decision.
...would have been to use the "freemium" approach. Where a TwitPic account is free if you authorize distribution of your photos by the company, but if you would like to retain all rights, you pay a monthly service charge.
All about monetizing others content.
"The belief by some that any photo posted on Twitter is available at no cost is completely wrong but now as result of this new arrangement, anyone wishing to publish celebrity photos posted on Twitter via TwitPic will be able to do so legitimately via WENN.”
Yes, so now it makes you money, it has nothing to do with the rights of the content creator, everything to do with the ability to make money off the content they provide directly, not through a means like advertising. Glad I have never posted a photo to twitpix, never will now.
re: "Our users best interest in mind"?!?
Or you could share newsworthy pictures through a platform that's explicitly designed to support citizen journalism and give citizen journalists the best deal.
That's what Citizenside.com is. We publish citizen journalism images and video, and in cases of real news value we license content to a network of over 7000 media clients.
And the majority of the revenue always goes to the photographer or videographer.
More on us here: http://blog.citizenside.com/en/2011/05/12/who-owns-the-rights-to-your-twitter-pictures/
Original comment:
"How is agreeing to sell somebody else's images, via an agency, and not paying or crediting the original artists having their best interests in mind?
The original creator may well own the copyright still but has to give worldwide rights to twitpic to do what they like! Who's best interest in mind is that? Hmmmmmm..... let me think......."
Another greedy corporation trying to capture every little cent. And I'm a Republican that can admit that!
This is thoroughly cynical and exploitative.
Twitter has over the last couple of years become the de facto dissemination method of choice, (and often the only choice), for those involving themselves in struggles against tyranny and oppression,
For Twitter to impose such conditions on those wishing to use their service is utterly cynical and an abuse of a monopoly position.
Amongst those who want to let the world know what injustices are befalling them, Twitter is often the only form of dissemination available and In effect, they are offered what essentially amounts to a fait accompli on the part of Twiiter, either accept our terms of commercial exploitation or remain silent.
Free speech for all, except for those that don't want to be exploited as part of the the deal.
Welcome to the free world.
Paragraph 1 of their T&C; do not allow the images to be used then paragraph 4 they say the opposite. apparently over 4.5 million people deleted their accounts yesterday. Twitter community is fantastic
This is absolutely nonsense. According to the Berne Convention and the national laws of the counties who signed it, copyrights can solely be assigned by an official document signed by the owner of the copyrights. I'd like to have my pictures sold the way Twit Pic does. It gives me the opportunity to perform a legal action with a claim that gives a far bigger profit than normal sales. In other words, I'd love to sew them for a lot of money. Ninnies... ;-)
I've never used Twitpic, since I just recently opened the account. That account is now closed and I'll be checking out MobyPicture.
I don't need any more clarification, I get it. The arrogance and condescension AND disingenuousness are astonishing. Typical case these days of 'I don't know what people are so upset about! It's not like the TERMS QUITE EXPLICITLY LAID OUT IN OUR ToS will actually impact anyone! What's the fuss???'
www.billcrandall.com
,how the hell can people get sucked in by such crap , it is quite obvious you are going to get the piss taken out of you,, and to even want to put up your work on TWIT-pic well the mind only boggles,,so much for the internet my friends welcome to the brave new world .
Thanks for Allowing Others to Help You Profit
It's so nice of TwitPic to reaffirm users' ownership while taking users' creative works, profiting from them and keeping the profits. So generous. So enlightened. I hope you rot in h*ll.
I strongly suggest we all add one last image to Twitpic - either an ad for our studio/business for them to distribute, or, better yet, a nice image of us flipping them the bird.
Fuck you Twitpic.
Personally would never sign up to anything like this......
....However, the photographer, as in, the person that takes the picture, has a legal binding moral right to br by lined & credited to for image, as long as they invoke this right in writing. :) Speaking as a professional press photographer, can I say that anyone using images that they do not legally own the rights to, to pass on for personal/corporate gain, without the written consent of THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER, is kinda dumb and very arrogant, and any photographer worth 'their salt' would see them in court......and win the copyright case.
A social networking site, as any site, cannot make thier own rules up and think they can by-pass international copyright law just because they say so in the small print. :)
Have fun fun, enjoy, take pictures and share 'em. YOU DO own THE COPYRIGHT. :))
i'll repeat and underscore previous comments: bad business move, stupid, insulting, greed. (shows a complete lack of understanding of the photography / illustration business)
and the followup? ha! trying to back track and ciorrect it and still getting it wrong
zuu.li - the fair way to share images on Twitter
in response to all, and specifically @elly, here's a new service we've just launched.
http://zuu.li
You share, you retain rights.
You can opt-in to have us act as your agent, and actively push your news-images to media worldwide in minutes.
and...drumrole please....you always make up to 65% of revenue and never less than half.
sounds like the right answer, no?
we launched today: zuu.li
zuu.li is a Citizenside project, we've been protecting rights for amateur media for over 5 years.
Garrett Goodman
International Coordinator
Citizenside
@garrettgoodman
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