Flynet — today's WORST person in the WORRRLD
There's a better way for picture sites to deal with bloggers.
So our publisher and editor both get an email
from the robot programmed by the law firm hired by the paparazzi agency Flynet alleging that I was using an image of Teri Hatcher without their permission.
And my first thought was: Whaaaa....?
Then I remembered — several months ago there was this ridiculously overhyped spread of pictures allegedly showing George Bush Sr. playing "grabass" (as TMZ so delicately put it) with the "Desperate Housewives" star. I was annoyed by the breathless coverage and responded with the piece, "Why Journalism's In Trouble (#842 in a series)," which (in part) scrutinized the photograph and concluded, "Sorry to disappoint, but even with TMZ's helpful spotlight on Herbert Walker's hand, it's pretty clear that neither is that a grab nor is it her ass."
Shortly after that story ran, a person close to Hatcher wrote me to say "I wish more people could report honestly like you – or even fact check once in a while."
Of course, suggesting to paparazzi sites that they fact check is a little like asking Sean Hannity to play nice. Their photos have become the mainstream version of porn — images that people want to ogle, usually more than they care to admit — and, according to Variety, that has made big business out of paparazzi pictures. In recent months, Flynet and other agencies have lawyered up and changed their policies and begun threatening bloggers (notably Perez Hilton) with, well, bad things if they insist on using Flynet's images.
Now, if I were in the fighting mood, here is what I would do ...
I would replace the tiny detail of Flynet's picture of Bush and Hatcher — which until a few minutes ago was on the story page at TV Barn — with SEVERAL of Flynet's pictures, accompanied by lines and circles to show that what Flynet's editors asserted was Bush 41 being unable to "keep his hands off Teri Hatcher" was nothing of the kind. This, of course, would be a much more literal adherence to the policy of fair use. And then I'd tell Flynet to grab my ass and kiss it.
But I've got a fall preview guide to put out. So I just got rid of the file — and in an act of true Christian charity, built a link back to Flynet Online where the pictures are displayed. (The picture at the top of this story is from ABC, which supplies photos for promotional purposes, like a normal entertainment outlet.)
Anyway, my larger point is that Flynet and other sites have fallen into a classic trap. They have relied on lawyers to bring relief to a situation that could be solved less acrimoniously through technology.
The problem is not the appropriating of Flynet's pictures by other sites. It's the absence of links back to Flynet's site and incentives to clickthrough for viewers of those other sites. So you get lawyers involved, and people like me — who are not just bloggers but MSM types — begin to associate Flynet in their minds with money-grubbing turds (which, admittedly, is not too many rungs below where they are now, chasing celebrities around with espionage-strength camera lenses).
But what if you could incent people to come to your site? Wouldn't that be easier, less expensive and more effective than banning reuse of your images?
Flickr,
the photo-sharing site owned by Yahoo, provides code to any of its
users to repost their photos on their blogs. The code contains a link
back to the Flickr page with the full-size photo. For instance, I can
link to a picture of me and my granddaughter (left) and choose an image
as small as that one or as large as a house. (Even Flickr has its
limits — you can't get code for other members' photos, so for instance if I want to link to the groovy montage of
Tuesday's lunar eclipse taken by my friend Jason Snell, I have to build my own.)
If Flynet followed Flickr's lead and made thumbnails of its photos
available to all blogs, on the condition that they use Flynet's code,
which links back to Flynet's site, I guarantee that it would generate
greater traffic, greater buzz and far less ill will among the
Internet's fansites than it does now. If Apple's incredible success
with iTunes has taught us anything, it's that if you give people the
tools to do things legally and easily, the vast majority of folks will use them.
