Image Copyright on the Web

I am unashamedly addicted to Google Analytics. If I am not looking at the number of visitors, I am investigating where they are coming from, and for Webometric Thoughts, many of them are coming from Google Images. I have had visits from 53 different country-specific Google Image search engines, and a little probing finds it is probably driven (bizarrely) by photos of me in different t-shirts! Whilst I found I am the top result for both'blog t shirt' and 'qr t shirt' (as well as appearing in the results for similar queries), I was surprised to find that other people have used my image on their blogs!

Along with the rest of the blogosphere, my blog does occasionally use other people's images to illustrate a point. Personally I am never sure whether it is better to embed the image, thus using the other person's bandwidth, or to copy the photo to my server. Whilst embedding the photo is less likely to be a breach of copyright, copying the photo seems to be the politer option.

But really people, are photos of me really the best illustration you can find??

Booby-trapped media file :-)

The BBC are reporting that a fake media file has been widely seeded on file-sharing networks. Supposedly the biggest outbreak for 3years. As a person who doesn't illegally download songs or films, it is the sort of story that makes me smile. Would you feel sorry for the burglar who scratched himself on the broken window?

Most people don't steal films and music because of an unerring belief in the faults of the intellectual property laws; they steal because they want the music and films and don't want to pay for them. There are problems with the intellectual property laws, but stealing is not the right way to go about changing them. If you don't want to pay, then don't watch/listen.

It would be interesting if the record and film industries started seeding these trojans, after all people would be damaging themselves through carrying out an illegal act.