by Pat Coakley
“The project exists in a simultaneous state of being both completely successful and not being started at all,” is what the character said in the Scott Adams Dilbert strip of April 17. Someone was leaning over his shoulder looking at his computer screen.
It’s not as effective just telling you about it, is it? You’d realize how brilliant it is if you saw it. Well, I had originally wanted to post it. But, soon came to realize that my impulse was justifiably trying to be controlled by agents of the creator. The agents are Universal U Click and they are the on-line agents of many cartoon artists.
I see their point. I didn’t create the character or his thoughts. I just identified with them. That doesn’t make the strip mine to do with it what I will.
So, I went to the website and realized I had some options for sharing but posting the full strip on my website was going to require asking for permission which was going to involve fees. So, I decided to share the link instead. They make that very easy to do.
I saw the strip, the actual three boxes strip on a Facebook Group. I don’t read comics so I didn’t know it was Dilbert nor did not know it was Scott Adams’ strip. Facebook allows you to download all posted photos so I could have downloaded it and then re-posted it here on my blog, my website, where-ever. The person who posted it either took a screen shot and posted it, took a photo of the actual strip, or more than likely, just downloaded it from someone else who posted it on their Facebook page.
I think he meant well but as the cliché goes: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In this case, “hell” is missed revenue and this type of “sharing’ is what challenges artists everywhere. In this particular case of sharing, no attribution was given. The only reason I knew who the creator was? His name is written/embedded with a copyright symbol in between each box in the comic strip itself.
Now, I suspect the person who shared it may have thought this posting was the benign equivalent of making a copy and sending to a friend. I’ve read Universal U Click’s rights page and it seems that particular act of photocopying a strip is doable without requesting permission to publish as long as the strip is not altered in any way.
But, to publish on the web goes beyond a single friend. And, not to attribute the strip at all?
Well, I see why Universal U Click is in business.
The website allows you to share the link to the strip which is here Scott Adams Strip
The interesting thing to me is that this same link, when I posted on Google+, called up an image and promotional text. Very effective sharing strategy. There was a visual that went along with the link. Here, and on Facebook, when I shared it, there was just the link address.
I’m just starting with Google + but already this little transaction makes me think Google + is a better “visual” platform than Facebook AND I already like it better because they restrict (or say they do..I trust no one really) downloads of images. They give you the illusion, at least, that you have to give permission for someone to download them.
As a photographer, posting on Facebook, rule #1 is to realize that anyone, and I mean anyone, can download photos and, consequently, do with them what they want.
Google + asks you if want to give download permissions. Big, big difference.
Anyone listening over there at Facebook? I know you are lurking. How do I know? Because my Facebook personal profile photo jumped in size overnight to the exact same dimensions that Google+ started offering their profile image.
Hmmm….
I believe we have us a rumble right here in digital river city.
