February 19 marks a particular anniversary for me, not exactly a celebratory one. It marks the date in 2019 when I started digging into widespread copyright infringement on Facebook and began logging them in a spreadsheet. I see the date every time I open this file and think to myself … “huh, been doing this that long eh?” For certain I was occasionally looking for such things, in my spare time, or just relying on a 3rd party service to try to do it for me. But it marked a time when I realized this issue is quite huge and so much larger than normal reverse search spiders reveal to be. A few weeks after that date I wrote about it acknowledging this is much larger than I expected.
Anniversaries are particularly reflective times, thinking about the lessons learned along the way, the myriad of stories of particular cases come to mind, and a particularly wide range of emotions. Businesses and influencers around the world benefit from the repeated use of stolen photographs as free advertising for their brand. It hurts the value of photographs everywhere, which already have tremendous downward pressures.
I created a FAQ page that used an example of a TV Commercial using a Taylor Swift song, unauthorized. This is no different. Even for Pages claiming to do something “just for fun” – they damage the value of creative content from the unfettered distribution outside the control and knowledge of creators. If someone could hear one of Taylor’s songs anywhere they like for free, why would anyone pay to listen to it?
Of course, I don’t have the resources of Taylor, and nobody was going to stand up for my rights for me – but me.
Your silence gives consent
~ Plato
Facebook (Meta) Knows Its A Problem
Coincidentally, reporting from the Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files released information that their own data scientists presented in 2019, when I started getting more deeply involved in this. Facebook’s scientists showed, in a formulaic way, how to build a large audience by stealing and reposting viral content. According to the Nov 2021 investigative report specifically on copyright, “about 40% of traffic to Facebook pages at one point in 2018 went to pages that stole or repurposed most of their content.“ The report also mentions an analysis of the Top 20 lists of top-performing posts in 2021 where 15 were copied outright or regurgitated from other Pages or social media platforms. The entire report is worth a read because this issue seeps well beyond copyright on photos, but the formulaic distribution of misinformation/disinformation and disrupting revenue streams of original content creators.
Meta’s transparency data also shows a significant uptick in infringement claims starting in 2020. (No, they aren’t all me!) It appears that around 80% is typically removed. Interestingly, their proactive enforcement (as of 2021 data) shows a decline. It is anyone’s guess as to why that is (I’m sure the data scientists know). But to Facebook’s credit, they have launched a Rights Manager module as part of their Creator Studio. I was finally accepted into this at the start of this year.
The tool, which has many opportunities for improvement, has bugs, is still a major advancement in addressing this problem. In fact, no other social media platform has anything like it that I am aware of to help content creators manage how their work is used. So, at least they are now going beyond what is minimally required by the DMCA. For all the problems and faults at Facebook/Instagram/Meta, this is a sign they are trying to do more — I hope.
After all, attracting original content creators is ultimately better for their bottom line. Meta already reported that the increase in privacy measures implemented by Apple has resulted in significantly reduced revenue. Business Insider reported a market value loss of $315 Billion as a result of this change. So there is more incentive than ever for a platform to keep users engaged with native content. Creating an atmosphere where content creators can better manage and control their material helps greatly with that. (YouTube already does this for example)
A final point is while many people have left or don’t participate on Facebook for various reasons, it is by no means an indication your content isn’t going to show up there. Many people write to me saying “I found it on Pinterest” for example. I don’t even have an account with Pinterest. (Which by the way, I believe is an incredibly hurtful platform, also doing minimal as required by the DMCA, to artists and rights to their content) Ultimately I think it is better to be a participant in the solutions, as long as there are meaningful doors open for such.
“… I only ask that this respect be returned, and the way for anyone to do that is to please, please refrain from putting The Far Side out on the Internet. These cartoons are my “children,” of sorts, and like a parent, I’m concerned about where they go at night without telling me. And, seeing them at someone’s web site is like getting the call at 2:00 a.m. that goes, “Uh, Dad, you’re not going to like this much, but guess where I am.
I hope my explanation helps you to understand the importance this has for me, personally, and why I’m making this request. Please send my “kids” home. I’ll be eternally grateful.”
Excerpt from a takedown letter from Gary Larson, creator of “The Far Side” comic strip upon learning about distribution of his work on the Internet (source) – Read his letter about his experience
Acceptance
While I do try to give credit where credit is due for the new tools Facebook has created to help artists, it is a bit annoying to see Pages that regularly steal content still in operation after 3 years. Some have been shut down, but so many remain. A sign of how pervasive this is, and the WSJ series shows the impacts can go far beyond stolen photographs into national election and health issues. Bad actors have learned how to manipulate the system.
Facebook recently clarified its content strike policy. My personal feeling is that it seems more lenient now than what I’ve experienced – but it is only a guess as I’ve never seen the actual policy published until recently. I only developed some theories based on feedback from users impacted by takedowns. Because of a very outdated Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the bulk of the burden still lies with content creators to engage in an unending game of whac-a-mole.
So this process has become rather transactional for me, but as Gary Larson mentions, it can be difficult at times when it’s your “kids.” I am not doing this to be vindictive, more protective just like anyone with their kids. Just like brick & mortar retail stores have loss prevention departments, this is quite similar – only it is a department of one who likes naps. I still get the occasional hate mail as a result of these efforts – it’s expected. I also work with people that I feel are sincere to help them learn. I have had people in other countries thank me for helping them learn something they didn’t know before. All of this plays into people growing into better digital citizens. (a class many of us apparently missed out on)
Thanks for reading and enduring me getting this off my chest.
Thank you, Mark. It’s something I’ve dabbled in for a while but never got serious. I really didn’t think my images were what the crooks wanted to haven’t done much about it. Perhaps it’s time to reacquaint myself with the process
I felt the same way about mine but it happens.
Thank you, Mark. I consider this well written and from the heart. My only social media is Twitter and I seldom post images. I posted a few on Facebook but that was years ago. At the present time all my images are only posted on my blog. I know this is a problem and really eats at my craw. It does even frighten me on how stuff is stolen, how much false information is placed out there on the internet. I’m also not sure how concerned some of this social media have towards protecting content creators. Money speaks, any money! In my time on the internet I do not know about any of my content stolen, which probably indicates I ain’t got that good of stuff. ?
Monte, They get lifted from anywhere – blogs, websites, imgur, Pinterest, even harvesting sites that scour the web for images, drop some SEO stuff with them, and a bunch of ads. Because it is so prevalent, some people think there is no problem with it. So it is more likely than not if anyone starts looking, you’ll find content where you didn’t put it.
Thanks Mark for that post. I know it’s a huge problem. Somehow the internet evolved as ‘free’ and everyone thinks that whatever can be found in it is either free or should be free. Plus nobody’s looking. And the punishment tends to be minimal. Not sure what the answer is.
Well, it might come down for a call for new image formats that can embed ads, as crazy as that sounds. For example, with video, ads can be embedded and become a revenue stream for the content creator. If a video is stolen, and someone tries to make money off the ads, that can now be tracked to redirect the ad revenue to the original creator. So if the content is stolen, at least the original creator has a recovery mechanism for lost revenue. That doesn’t exist for still images. It almost makes the case for serving images as video instead.
Interesting. Did t know that was possible.
Yes – I believe it’s called Freebooting. And I also understand it was the primary driver for FB to create Rights Manager, for video content creators to be able to recapture lost revenue from stolen video content. They now have extended it to images, but it doesn’t have the monetary recovery options.
Mark, I hear your concern. My primary revenue from photography comes from licensing my images through stock sites. Countless times.
, reverse searching my images to see where they are used, showed them for sale on other contributors accounts, and some contributors only sell images stolen from other contributors. The agency, when notified, will close those accounts, but very quickly, another account will pop up and do the same. Obviously this sort of behavior detracts from sales, and creates a problem for businesses that end up licensing a stolen image from a stock agency. I never really bothered monitoring Facebook or Instagram for unauthorized use of my images, the stock image surveillance alone has taken too much of my time. I have given up chasing, it does not add anything to my life and the revenue lost I consider part of the business, but I will report violations if I happen to stumble upon them. Very sad.
I expect your position is similar to many. It is a difficult situation. If creators don’t report content, platforms aren’t going to invest time/resources into areas that attempt to reduce it, only doing the bare minimum as required by law. But once someone does report something, it becomes just like you said, another pops up in its place. Nobody can expect to police the entire world. And I almost gave up on Facebook once I did a couple of language searches other than English. It was just staggering the results that showed up.
Hi Alessandra. I have sold some images through stock sites as well. While other contributors selling your stolen images are easy to identify as stolen (and in my mind 100 times worse than a company using a stolen image-not that I condone that – it’s just that others selling your stolen image is horrible) once you sell through a stock site it’s really hard to determine if an image that is used somewhere is stolen. Did they purchase it through the stock site or steal it? Becomes difficult and a good deal of work to find out.