Oh, ennuipoet, I hope you wrong. I fear that you are not.
The photographer responded to the comments on Jezebel.
http://jezebel.com/5748062/did-the-gap-steal-this-image-from-flickr
Here is what he said:
Hi. I’m Chris Devers. This is my photo we’re talking about here. I just saw the huge spike in traffic on the photo from Jezebel ? thank you ? and will post a couple of quick points, admitting up front that I’ve only skimmed the comments here:
? I’m not a professional photographer.
? I place my photos under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license ( [creativecommons.org] ), meaning that I’m happy to share my photos, on three conditions:
1) I want to be credited where my photos are used.
2) I only allow non-commercial use without specific separate permission.
3) I do not permit derivative or modified versions without permission.
? Gap’s use of my photo violates all three of those clauses.
? If they had ASKED for permission, I almost certainly would have said Yes.
? I wrote to the Gap yesterday morning, and got a brief response this evening, saying basically “we’re going to get back to you”. Other than that, I’ve never had any contact with the company about this.
? There are three other versions of the shirt in question. Where did the photos for THOSE come from?
? For that matter, what about the rest of the Gap’s catalog?
? For that matter, what about the catalogs of the rest of the Gap family of companies (Old Navy, Banana Republic, etc)?
I am (clearly) not a lawyer, but I did have the (naive?) assumption that going with a standard Creative Commons license afforded me at least some degree of protection here. I understand that copying happens, and I’m not trying to fight the tide of modernity; I just want to exert what little control I have as an average citizen and, you know, get them to ask permission, first.
? ? ?
Skimming a bit here, that covers some of the main comments I’m seeing.
I probably shouldn’t comment much more than that until I have a clearer sense of how this will unfold.
