Monday, January 19, 2009

Photog calls us bozo because of credit oversight


Wow! Did we get Carolyn Kellogg mad. She's a photographer and writer who works for the LA Times book news blogsite (hired “to help us navigate” the "terrain” of the “blogosphere” because it’s “such a large landscape” “and she’s, well, just so darn smart about these things") and took a picture of the sign outside Book Soup the day founder Glenn Goldman died. The photo ran on the LA Times website. We used the picture when we couldn't find any pictures of Glenn.Then LAist linked to our site and credited us.

Now we're a bozo and a lot of other unethical things, writes Carolyn:

Noncrediting bozo steals photo. Mine.

That’s the picture. It can be found here, on Jacket Copy. It can also be found here, on the bozo’s website. Click to see the bozo’s version big, which shows how yes, the clouds and reflections are exactly the same.

Not that I am surprised some bozo runs around using other people’s photos. It’s what bloggers are accused of — irresponsibility, lack of journalistic ethics, deliberate un-awareness that people gots to get paid for their work. Or, at the very least, given credit. I’m all for Creative Commons. I let people use my pictures all the time — for free, but with credit. Think about it, bozo: did I drive out to Book Soup last Sunday for you? No, I did not. The picture is not yours.

What really galls me is that this pic ends up on LAist — credited to the bozo. LAist — where I WAS EDITOR — get the whole blogging thing. They provide photo credit. To, unfortunately, the bozo, who does not.

Yes, we gave the lady her credit this morning. And did we mention it's a very nice photo?

(Irony alert: Carolyn apparently sports the same hair color as the real Bozo. Read her LA Times bio here.)

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