Photobucket Selling your Images?
It came to my attention today when someone forward an online petition regarding photobucket practices. Now Im the type that I never really believe these things at face value and look into it first as best as I can.
Apparently photobucket has a partner deal where if you are browsing on there and see an image you really like you can click on ‘buy print’ and it dosen’t stop there, you can do posters, photobooks, mugs, many things….
Apparently its defaulted this way some when someone creates an account then starts loading YOUR images that they right clicked from your website and saved, they are now available as prints to everyone =) more than likely its a low res web image so anything larger than a 4×6 will look like crap but if they were kind enough to leave your logo on it that could harm your reputation as an artist. That web size may be ok though on a mug or something though.
Bottom line is someone else is profiting off of your work. I have not checked yet to see if the account owner gets a cut of it or not.
On another note if you use this service to upload your family pics, of your kids maybe, you better check on this cause then every pedophile can then order prints of your kids. If you make your account private I believe it would stop this.
In case you are wondering here is the petition http://www.petitiononline.com/pbarts/petition.html
I don’t think I know anyone who uses Photobucket for their own photos. Most use it for image hosting for blogs etc, but lots use it for housing stuff they’ve found online, just to keep all the pictures together in one place. Scary to think that people can sell prints of just about anyone else’s work!