So you wanna be a blogger or already are one? Cool. I'm sure you have a menagerie of pictures on it including pics of your, your own hair, outfits,etc; and pics of and/or from others from various websites that you found inspiring and cool videos from Youtube.
When writing a paper, if you use information from another source other than yourself, you must provide the proper citations and include a bibliography at the end. It is no different in the blogging world. If you see a picture you like and want to share on your blog, make sure you give the proper citation.
Some people want you to ask first before you share a picture from their site so make sure you read the whole site to see if that is what they request. Others, myself included, don't mind if you share a picture from their site, as long as the proper citations are given. (I now pretty much watermark all photos/graphics created by me so that if proper citation isn't given, people still know it didn't come from the outside source posting the photo. You, unfortunately, cannot control how every aspect of your work is shared in the cyber world. That's the risk you run when dealing with the internet.)
BE AWARE that even if you do give proper citation, the original owner still may want you to take any of their photos and/or videos you posted down (which I think is kind of silly because if you didn't want your stuff to get possibly shared all over the worldwide web beyond your control, you probably shouldn't put it on the web in the first place. #theresathought #imjustsayin But to each, his own and you still must respect the owner's wishes. After all, it's not your photo or video.) and if I were you, I would take it down because in some cases you could get in trouble for things including but not limited to copyright infringement.
I don't know if there has been any official blog citations rules, etc created (if there are, let me know!) but below is how I normally cite pictures that I cannot take credit for creating.
Example 1: [Image Source] Make the words "Image Source" a link to the site or web address you found the picture on.
Example 2: [Image from http://fuckyeahcurlscurlscurls.tumblr.com/]
You can cite the source either directly below a photo/s or at the end of your post. Just make sure you cite!
For videos, I always make sure that I list who's video it is and a link back to the video, website and/or channel I got it from.
Just make sure you cite some kind of way. I'll admit, I didn't do this in the beginning of my blogging days. It honestly, didn't cross my mind and maybe it hasn't crossed some of yours but now that I know and you know, we should all do it. Blogging is creative writing, but the word writing is still in there so some writing etiquette (and laws) still has to be employed.
Most people are more than happy for their things to be shared (or they wouldn't have put it up on the worldwide web for all to see!) as long as they don't feel that an outside source is taking credit or their work is being "stolen" (or used inappropriately).This community thrives from sharing so lets make sure we give credit where it's due. Happy Blogging!
Comments
ps: just like you, as long as there is proper citation i don't understand why anyone would be mad. You DID put it on the internet. what did you think would happen?
MochaNapps: Girl, you would be surprised how sensitive some people are to controlling how their work is shared but once you upload something to the web, you lose that ultimate control in how it will be shared, unfortunately. I was a victim of this but I was incensed because they didn't cite me, not that my image was used. I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided to be on the web and this blog. I've since learned and that is why I watermark my photos so that even if people don't give me the credit, I am still getting the credit. Lol.
I saw a pic of my hair on a website that frequently visit and it caught me by surprise.
I wasn't upset that they used it (it was an inspiration post *insert smil*) but there was no link back or credit or anything.
Since then, I've been sure to watermark all pics on my site as well.
Like I said there's only so much you can do. Once something's on the net, you lose ultimate control on how it will be shared. That's the nature of the internet, ya know?