As has been said in several places recently, if you upload images to redbubble, they are almost inevitably going to get copied around the internet, and eventually the connection back to where you posted them will get lost.
One way to try to alleviate this problem is to embed within your update files information about the author, copyright, and links to connect back to the author. This is easy to do with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, and is probably easy to do with other packages. (There is a long-standing standard place to put this information in JPG, TIFF and other imaging formats – the IPTC data within the image metadata.)
It makes a good deal of sense to add this information to you files before uploading. Much of the copying is done not to steal the image, but initially to reference in some way the original site/artist. (I’m aware that much of my work related to Lower Moss Wood has been copied in this way, for example, and have no problem with this).
Its unlikely that anyone doing this innocently will remove the relevant data from the file. Having the information in the file allows someone further down the line who wants to contact the original author to do so. I like to believe that the majority of potential users of images are honest, and if they can easily find the original author will contact them if they want to make commercial use of an image. If they can’t easily locate them, however, they are not going to put a great deal of effort into searching for the author – they’ll either decide not to use the image, or that the author simply doesn’t care.
redbubble are now allowing this information to remain in the files on the website (other than the tumbnails, I think).
Thankyou, redbubble
the rest of the original forum post is now irrelevant, and has been deleted
deleting it was a mistake, sorry! redbubble didn’t do what they said they had, and still, several weeks later, haven’t corrected what they did.
however
on the sample I’ve looked at, redbubble are claiming a part of the copyright in the work, by putting their URL in the copyright statement, and not providing a direct contact link back to the artist anywhere at all. I’m not happy with this.
no action from redbubble to correct this, and no apparent plans to do so
(from Dave Cheney) As far as I know there is nothing scheduled in the next few iterations.
So, two months after this problem was brought to their attention (here , where they locked the topic to prevent further discussion)
- redbubble still remove all links back to the artist from image metadata
- replace your copyright message with one that contains a spurious link back to redbubble
- and have no timescale to correct this
For those of you concerned about orphan works on the internet, redbubble are still busily turning your work into orphans if you upload them here, even if you put identifying data into your images.
Mike Finley, 3 months ago
Also see the forum thread about IPTC data which is about the same problem, and continues the same pattern by redbubble of trying to pretend its not an issue worth considering.
Carmen Mandel-..., 3 months ago
It is an objectionable principle to remove metadata copyright information without the artist’s consent. The reasons for doing it and the mentioning of who else does it is irrelevant.
Mike Finley, 2 months ago
The recent discovery that Papree have a number of redbubble images on display gives an illustration of the need for this metadata to be retained.
While the publication of the images does (probably) infringe copyright, and redbubble are rightly checking with them whether they have permission, they’ve been reasonably responsible.
They do provide a link back to the artist in one place, and a link back to the image in another. The second link demonstrates the need for metadata to be retained – there is nothing in the image link to indicate the artist, and so with metadat removed there is little to no chance that anyone travelling via that link will be able to find the artist.
Mike Finley, 2 months ago
Redbubble are now maintaining the copyright data. :)
thankyou, redbubble!
Mike Finley in reply to Mike Finley’s comment, 2 months ago
however, it appears that redbubble are providing a link back to themselves for contact, rather than to the artist. :(
I’m less than happy with this part
Mike Finley, about 1 month ago
So, two months after this problem was brought to their attention (here , where they locked the topic to prevent further discussion)
For those of you concerned about orphan works on the internet, redbubble are still busily turning your work into orphans if you post it on here, even if you put identifying data into your images.