Thanks much for the clarification Daniel. Best of The Season to yourself, UBC staff, and forum participants.
Re: O.T. concepts Regarding the copyright of images, I realise that the original contributor retains copyright, but I feel that once posted the UBC forums have a kind of spiritual ownership (or perhaps guardianship) of them. If it was not for the UBC BGCPR forums these pictures would not be in the public domain in most cases. On a related note, is there a way to remove photos from old threads that are past the 90 day editing threshold? If problems such as those encountered in this thread were to become commonplace, I would have no hesitation to remove most of my photos from the maple gallery but would have no way of knowing how to do it. Thanks Daniel. I decided to remove the post as it implied certain things about a certain poster that seemed a little uncharitable in the light of their subsequent claims that they were correcting things re the "swapped" (swiped) images, and that the nasty IT guy was to blame for the original problem. As nobody had directly replied to or referenced the post in question I thought it was safe to remove - I would not normally do so and agree with the charter in this respect. Edit - since the original post has now been directly referenced I have decided it is only fair to reinstate it as per the charter.
Re: O.T. concepts Swap "available for the public to see" with "public domain" -- the latter phrase has legal meaning (it is work with expired or no copyright). I have no problem with the concept of "collective vigilance" for use of images posted on these forums, but I can't claim to want the responsibility of policing image use for other people's images. I have enough trouble looking after my own! If the group wants to be on the collective lookout, though, feel free to use the forums to highlight these situations so that others know. Well, this comes to the point made previously re: 5.15. The proper, only, and time-consuming avenue is to work with me to sort it out as best we can. I feel that once a thread is created (with an initial post and replies) that there is a collective ownership of the conversation -- to pull out postings here and there may destroy the thread (of course, I do this as a moderator -- but if I do so, I always try to leave a whole conversation intact -- if I can't, I make a note as to why somewhere in the thread). We had one instance of a forum member who decided to leave 4-5 years ago, with @ 150 posts (I can't explain the situation, sorry) -- between the two of us, we whittled down his posts to 20 or 30, but that was as much as I felt I could do while still honouring the contributions of the others in those threads (and he seemed satisfied with that). Fair enough, I just wanted to ensure there was awareness.
Good point. Yes, I wouldn't expect anyone from UBC to be responsible for policing image use, it would be an impossible task. If we as forum users take a collective responsibility, hopefully at least the most blatant thefts could be pointed out for all to see, and people could make up their own minds about the abusers. I must admit that if any of my images had been stolen by an unscrupulous company I would be absolutely livid about it, and even the possibility of such a theft means that I always think twice before sharing images on the forum, and share less than I would in secure environment. I don't know if anyone has mentioned it already, but kudos to PtB for bringing this to the forum's attention.
Re: O.T. concepts I wasn't talking about removing my posts, just the photographs contained within them. Considering I retain copyright of these pictures surely at any time I could ask for them to be deleted from the UBC servers? (hopefully it would never come to this). P.S. Merry Christmas (happy holidays)
Re: O.T. concepts Surely, yes, but there has to be a reasonable expectation attached to that. If someone decides to pull 2000 images, I could probably handle 20-30 images / day re: reviewing threads (on good days). Some threads are constructed solely around the image, yes? So the thread would also need to be reviewed to see whether it can be retained. You are also making the singularly most argued reason why most forums want to do a rights grab (and why it makes sense to do so from a forum admin point of view). The day that there is a blow-up about this (with someone demanding all of their images be removed NOW) will be the day the charter changes, likely -- to the detriment of everyone else who wants to participate going forward. I'm a strong believer in the 98/2 rule. 2% of people can easily ruin things for everyone else.
Daniel, Just wanted to let you know how much I admire your "solve and move on" attitude! Unless a person is an attorney watching a client's interest, it's sensible not to try to place blame. Please forgive, if this quote annoys anyone, but "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" saves lots of time & hard feelings. We all make errors now & then. I salute you, and all the really tough work you do for the Forum and for all of us! May you and yours have a happy & fruitful holiday season! Sincerely! Ann
Daniel, didn't mean to cause you any excess stress, and I certainly wouldn't like to be the 2%. Hopefully image theft would not become so prevelant that anyone would want to withdraw their images. I notice that one or two users have submitted photographs with personalised logos superimposed on them - maybe this will be the (unfortunate) way forward on this issue.
Thanks, Ann. I do try to take that approach, but it can be difficult to do sometimes. I suppose one does the best one can. maf, I'm not stressed -- well, maybe a little, but only because I'm trying to finish some things before going on holidays. I wasn't referring to you re: the 2%. Anyway, this thread should probably go back on track now ;-)
My Official Apology! To all members of this forum: I would like to say that I am sorry if we have used your pics on our website without permission. If anyone would like to donate pics for us to use or would like to trade some trees for pics please contact us on our website Kigi Nursery. I would like to move on from this issue now and get back to my personal passion for Maples and and Horticulture in general. Good luck to you all and hope to see you in future posts. Daniel I believe any issues with UBC pics have been fixed. Would it be possible to return my nursery back on the source thread? Happy Holidays All Justen
I have posted many pics in this forum. I agree that it is not right to use them pretending they are from other sources, not to mention all the reasons given by Jim. On the other hand I have no objection for anybody using them, including for commercial puposes, as long as the source is quoted, i.e.: 'photo taken at Gomero's garden' or 'with permission from Gomero's garden', etc.... Gomero
I appreciate the message from Justen/Kigi. I feel the same as Gomero. I am pleased to have my pics viewed and enjoyed by others as long as the image is credited to to UBC or PTB.