New Detroit Art Deco Website

[Richard]

Okay, to end the furor I have removed all images. Sorry to have caused so much consternation.

I am definitely guilty of displaying photos without permission, yes.

But steal and theft are heavily loaded words that imply subterfuge and and falsified ownership. I said on every page and in my first post these photos are not mine. Not an excuse, no, but there is murder 1 and murder 2. I plea to the lesser charge of displaying without permission. Semantics maybe, but strong words matter.

I understand that talented photographers must have a raw nerve about seeing people take credit for their work. I didn't take credit, but I didn't give it either.

I am already about 20% of the way through with replacing all the pictures with "creative content" permitted photos from flickr. I will have to ask around about the historic ones. There will be captions with credits, and a whole new page of just photo credits with the photographer's names and links.

Thank you for bearing with me.

Do not get discouraged,Detroit is not unlike other city's where you will have some willing to bend over backwards and can provide a wealth of information while others will have no part of it.

As long as you are doing it as a public good,if and when it becomes a commercial aspect then it becomes a whole different situation. Good luck.

[KarmicCurse]

Thank you so much, aoife! I did not know about that site. I already found some early construction photos. I will contact them to find out more about their usage rules. And thank you for just a kindly worded, helpful post.

And thank you too for the encouragement, Richard.

[Mackinaw]

Agreed w Bailey. Southen, i get your point and i love your work, but you may want to consult an attorney to obtain some clarity on your rights and others' rights. What, pray tell, would your damages be if you were to hypothetically sue the purveyor of an educational website? Where's the pot of money, and what is your loss [[aside from credit and free publicity-- which i totally agree you should get).

[ABetterDetroit]

I tried to stay out of this one but it keeps showing up.

Southen, you are very talented and I have admired and enjoyed your work for a long time via net. It sucks that you have been way ahead of the curve in your art but have run into recent obstacles with local TV, cable TV and now KarmicCurse. Some times the middle men are a giant pain in the ass but all this drama kinda drives home why it is a good idea to have an agent represent an artist to business.

[southen]

Agreed w Bailey. Southen, i get your point and i love your work, but you may want to consult an attorney to obtain some clarity on your rights and others' rights. What, pray tell, would your damages be if you were to hypothetically sue the purveyor of an educational website? Where's the pot of money, and what is your loss [[aside from credit and free publicity-- which i totally agree you should get).

Oh it isn't worth my time to get an attorney, that is the problem. The monetary gain, even when used by a large corporation, is basically maybe a few hundred dollars, which is why photographers dont sue and why people continue to take content that isn't theirs. I think we determined as well that the website is no longer educational, which is why I think Karmic is now trying to contact people and find new content.

Credit and free publicity was great when I was starting out, but I have since made this my business and have bills to pay. The loss I have to deal with is having control over what is my property. I just sold 14 images to be blown up at large scale to a local hospital. They paid quite well for the images and I doubt that they would like to see one of them showing up on a website randomly knowing that they paid top dollar for the rights to the shots.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but would you have the same thoughts if Lowell's paintings were popping up on a site and being used without his permission. I feel like there would be more outrage as opposed to the 'ho hum' attitude towards someone stealing photographic art. I think much of it is a perception issue.