Sports tournament time seems like an ideal opportunity to provide a quick lesson in media law, specifically when it comes to photos. 

With everyone now having access to be a publisher through blogs and social media, yet with virtually no one trained on the ethics and laws that accompany publishing, it is not surprising this creates problems.

I’m talking about the use of other people’s photos. In this case, our photos, in particular.

When you walk into a store, it’s clear what the product is. A T-shirt, a banana, a laptop. One cannot just grab a product and walk out the door without paying.

As a newspaper, our products are our stories, videos and photos. When someone takes this content, this is also stealing, otherwise known as copyright infringement.

To be clear, many people are safe and not in any trouble. It is perfectly fine to hit the Share button on Facebook or Twitter. When you hit share, The Eudora Times brand follows with our content, giving us proper credit as the creator.

Here is where the problems come in:

We have had instances this sports season with our photos being downloaded/saved from our site and then used by other people.

We were not given credit as the ones who took the photos. We were not always asked if the photos could be used. This is the equivalent of stealing product from our store.

This matters for many reasons. A main one is that we are the ones paying for our reporters to create this work. When other people steal our content for their own personal gain or use, they are not paying for that product. This then results in a loss to us.

Our newspaper is run by college students. We depend on donations from the community to support them and the journalism that we create. We bring in $16,000 a year and barely get by.

So, when someone else takes my reporter’s work for free after I have pinched and saved to be able to pay him to create these great photos, that’s a problem – a business problem, an ethical problem and, yes, a legal problem.

Therefore, here are two key tips to ensure proper (and legal) social media behavior:

Totally safe: Again, hitting the Share button on Facebook and Twitter or posting a web link of one of our stories is not a problem. You are in the clear.

Any other use: Any other activity beyond a direct share from our page requires our permission. If you would like any of our photos for your own personal or organizational use, email us at [email protected]. From there, we will discuss the proper attribution and/or payment involved for use of our photos.

We are thrilled so many people enjoy our sports content and see its value. To be able to continue to provide it, we must protect our reporters and the work that they do.

Please also donate here to support our sports crew since they rely on your donations to continue providing local sports coverage: tinyurl.com/y4u7stxj