Saturday, September 16, 2006

Copyright

I cruise around the internet (StumbleUpon usually) to find random photos or pictures to use as my desktop wallpaper. After a few weeks or days I find another photo and change it. Today I clicked on this site with cool photos on it. I clicked on the photo to englarge it. Then I right-clicked to set it as my desktop background, and this message popped up:

"These photos are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Unauthoritzed use prohibited."

Interesting. I've wondered about that before, especially in the context of posting photos/pictures from other sites onto places like MySpace comment boards. It always felt weird to be able to download those images (with Save As for instance). You knew this was coming, and you can't blame them for wanting to protect the expression of their art.

But still. Aren't they trying to get their work Out There? Isn't there something anti-artistic and stuffy about preventing people from using it as their wallpaper? It seems like they could restrict it more finely. (Like s/he is an artist/attorney. I wonder how many of those there are.) Is there an economical incentive? Did someone steal his/her work?

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