Oh no, yet another tirade on attribution, or lack there of, of open licensed media. Isn’t this post a repeat episode? Something about Always Be Attributing?
But as they never say in tinseltown, “inspired by real non attributed images.”
I saw a Mastodon post linking to the Why Join W3C page for the W3 Consortium. It did not draw my interest that much, but the featured image that came through in Mastodon whispered to me, “I have seen that image!”
It was the human hands on the edge of a table full of various devices listed under “Quick list of Member Benefits.”
Do you notice what is not included here? I would not have given it a second thought, but just in the last two weeks I use the exact same image to create an image for an event I planned for a panel discussing online communities.
Note the difference (red arrow assisted)
That seems rather eerie that I would recognize the same photo I had used, which, for anyone not seeing it in invisible lettering on the W3C page is:
Unsplasb Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash Free to use under the Unsplash License
Now, again for the 9805th time people see photos from Unsplash or Pixabay or Pexels or half a c note other image sites that are more or less public domain as “By the rules I do not have to attribute.”:
Or I don’t have time to attribute.
Or….
Once more, when you use public domain / free to sue images, yes by the letter of some law, you are not required to attribute.
But what does it convey to a visitor to your site?
- Anyone can use any images found on the internet
- The person who made this site made this image themself, they own it
- Hey, everyone else does this
Also, let’s say I come across that image of computers and hands remixed into an image like I did, or on its own. What if I want to find more like it, maybe by the same artist? What if I want to thank them for it?
When you skip attribution you delete the connection to an artist, a person, a fellow inhabitant of tis ball floating around the sun.
One more time.
Always.
Be.
Attributing.
It’s not that hard to do. And it is a public expression of gratitude to a creator. Why be so rude as to not say thanks?
ABA.
Featured Images: Another one of my knock offs after Rene Magritte’s Treachery of Images, no part of the original was used. The stand in for Magritte’s Pipe is a different one, Wikimedia Commons image Lloyd Charles Lemcke, Pipe, c. 1937, NGA 14452.jpg by Lloyd Charles Lemcke dedicated to the public domain using CC0.
