Last night, jenpet got a message from a fellow FetLife member who informed us that someone had posted one of our images on their profile without permission or credit. First, I'd like to extend my thanks to that member, I won't mention names here but you know who you are. Thank you for taking the time to let us know what you found. I find it interesting, on one hand I'm flattered that one of my images of me and my slave was iconic enough for someone to want to take. On the other hand, with the proliferation of cameras these days, fuck sake they are in our phones, how hard is it to take one one's self? I would want to see it. I love seeing other people's images. Pictures from their play sessions, their lifestyles, even just the mirror shot of a nice booty. I also love to get comments and feed back on my images and videos. Lets face it, I'm a comment whore:D. I was ecstatic, literally, when I reached thirty comments on this picture. What really gets me is that my image that they re-posted received more comments than my original. Ha!
To have someone take one of my images and re-post it is somewhat flattering I think. I'm sure I would feel a lot different about it if I were trying to make money off of my photography, one of those pay sites with pictures and videos. I've thought about it, but really I like being able to share our lives in the way that we do now. I might one day open up a clip store for some of the videos I've made but that would probably be about it.
Still, this photo theft thing is the reason why FetLife recently went through a major security overhaul. Now all pictures are protected from saving, copying, or capturing. This extends retroactively to all pictures, not just the new ones posted. There is even an option to report an image violation right on the profile picture page itself. Handy, except...
The whole reason I first got involved with FetLife was that it was a great place to find free porn related pictures. Even better the images themselves range from amateur play time snapshots to professional quality images. Not to say that I haven't come to, or even didn't from the start, appreciate it for what it is, a great place to be part of the community, make friends, share ideas, etc. But come on, free porn! Hell, I vaguely remember Fetlife promoting itself as a free pic place, they just asked that you only post your own work.
I have always made it a point to never post an image that belongs to someone else, period. Or failing that, at the very least give full credit when I can. Here on the blog, I've posted internet captured pictures a couple of times, but I do not take any credit for it. On my Fetlife profile, I only post my own pictures. I'm not bragging nor making a moral judgment, I'm just saying that it is because of people like this that I can no longer save some of the beautiful images that have been popping up on FetLife for my own private "appreciations" later. I collect massive amounts of porn; videos, pictures, you name it. I've got gigabytes of things that I have come across and just had to have. But now, I'm cut off. It's like coming to the end of a previously unknown introductory period and now you have to pay full price for the free things that got you hooked. Damned addiction peddlers ;).
Having now been a victim of the thing that has gotten so many, especially the professionals, so up in arms, I can see the benefit to having this security measure. I believe that it is also optional, that you can change the settings of any new pictures posted, from secured to unsecured. However, I might just be thinking wishfully there.
Regardless, it finally happened to me, so now I know what it is like. Even if I'm not sure whether it upsets me overly or not...
