Really good round-up from Paul Bradshaw on the Online Journalism Blog of the case of Joe Neale, whose photo of a crime scene at Waterlook station was used by Sky News after Neale posted it to Twitter.
Neale’s picture, which he submitted via Twitpic, was used by Sky for the story a couple of weeks ago without his knowledge.
Using Twitter to raise the issue – and maintain pressure on Sky – and backing himself up with TwitPic’s terms of service, Neale has now been contacted by Sky, who have agreed to pay for use of the image.
Fascinating to see Neale’s correspondence with Sky in the open via Twitter/the use of the service to campaign. The ultimately positive response from the Sky News Online team is also interesting and counter to the original act of using the photo – which suggests that mainstream media organisations still see social media as a free pool of content – as a comment on the OJB post suggests.
Sky used a photograph they procured online and attributed the photo to the guy who took it.
He invoiced Sky for the use of his photo.
Sky paid the invoice.
Sky didn’t once try to deny that he was owed the money.
This isn’t some David and Goliath story. It’s a mundane, everyday occurrence.
I think the interest in this case is that Sky DID pay up despite this being a common occurrence.
There are many examples where pro and amateur photographers struggle to get reuse fees in these type of breaking news situations.
Additionally, Neale as an amateur/cit-j/member of the public (whatever you want to call it) exerted his rights – this doesn’t always happen either.
Sky does deserve credit for responding and paying – what is more this is another example of why when a news organisation chooses to be interactive/active in social media, the audience has new ways for answering back…
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