Crediting Yourself: People Hate It (copyright, pictures, photos, pro)

[Des-Lab]

Not about photography per se. But about pictures in general.

Empirical observational evidence I've seen is that people in general absolutely hate it when photographers credit their own work to themselves.

Why?

Is it seen as a form of self boasting/narcissism? Does it make poaching said picture more difficult? Plain old envy and resentment and not acknowledging a picture is seen as a passive aggressive form of rejection? The picture is what we like. Couldn't give a rats a$$ about the person that took it.

I see this on Facebook all the time. Some of the groups I post in, the entire groups are propped up on people stealing other peoples work from Google and other online databases.

Want to start a flame war or even get banned? Just ask about crediting and copyright. Not even the pro versus anti President Trump vitriol can match the level of hatred that gets shoveled back and forth when discussing this.

As an experiment, I once posted the same picture in two separate groups of comparable membership and activity.

One where it contained a watermark of my name and text credit to myself.

The other, without. Only a description of the picture. But no mention of ownership and copyright. Otherwise like I said...the exact same picture.

The non-marked/credited one received five times as many likes/shares/comments as the one where I credited myself. Again. Similar sized groups with similar amounts of daily activity.

Why is this?

Why is the issue of copyright and plagiarism such a contentious one in the first place?

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Des-Lab

Is it seen as a form of self boasting/narcissism? Does it make poaching said picture more difficult? Plain old envy and resentment and not acknowledging a picture is seen as a passive aggressive form of rejection?

I'm not implying that you're one of these people, but it looks that way to those who aren't creative, and don't have anything for someone else to claim as their own, and who might claim someone else's work as their own.

I see this on Facebook all the time. Some of the groups I post in, the entire groups are propped up on people stealing other peoples work from Google and other online databases.

You see that because most of what you see on Facebook isn't original content. It comes from somewhere else. Most memes and other nonsense get shared like needles and groupies backstage at a Motley Crue show, and nobody cares who made it. Which kind of ties into...

The picture is what we like. Couldn't give a rats a$$ about the person that took it.

And this mentality is why people steal the work of others. This is a case where "we" doesn't mean me. Although you put it in a way that comes across that this isn't your personal position, more the position of the majority of people in your observation.

To be clear, I mainly have the notice up here to establish that the photos I hotlink to are mine, in accordance with city-data's terms of service.

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by Des-Lab

Empirical observational evidence I've seen is that people in general absolutely hate it when photographers credit their own work to themselves.

I do not agree with your claimed observation.

Definition of empirical.

1. derived from or guided by experience or experiment.
2. depending upon experience or observation alone, without using scientific method or theory, especially as in medicine.
3. provable or verifiable by experience or experiment.

From: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/empirical?s=t