One of the things we often mention when we explain Commons Machinery to new people is the photo by “internet”-construct. We use it, because we think it illustrates clearly how attribution is broken on the internet.
Let’s have a look at an example of what photo by “internet” is. This blog post (in Swedish) sums up how the Swedish tabloid Expressen spins a story out of the instagram feed of popular author Camilla Läckberg. While it is easy to make comments on the level of journalism practiced by Expressen, let’s focus on the photos and photo credits here. Have a closer look at the photo credits in the screen shots. More of less all of the press photos have the photographer and/or the agency credited. But Läckberg’s own Instagram photos, a focal point of the story, are attributed to Instagram and not Läckberg.
While this, unfortunately, is a very popular method of producing celebrity journalism, this lack of proper attribution is not limited to the field of celebrity journalism. Images uploaded to Wikipedia can also be found used with the attribution “Photo by Wikipedia”. Here in an article on Texas Tribune about the Clean Water Act or in the Business Times about credit ratings in San Francisco.
It becomes even more ridiculous when the credits says “image by internet”. It is as imprecise as it can get, but nevertheless it happens. Here in Danish tabloid ekstrabladet.dk, which credits the internet for a infographic (hat tip to Peter Brodersen).
The lack of proper attribution doesn’t only happen with images. Even the Open Street Map community have a hard time getting users to attribute data correctly, as this blog post by Simon Poole shows.
Some would argue that not having proper attribution is a technological problem, due to the structure of the internet and how easy it is to copy and paste images. It might also be argued that because of the internet’s size and the skills and effort required to track down the origins and creator of an image, it is a technological problem.
However, it is also a social problem and, in many cases, an economic problem. It is a social problem, because as we have seen, attribution is an acknowledgement of the author. Its goal is to thank the creator of something you are using.
It is also an economic problem, because while traditional business models in creative industries are crumbling, artists and creative producers are finding new ways to make money. One of the premises of making money as a creator, is to have your creations associated with your name.
read original post on Astrid Bigoni's Site
