558 I have recently received a message from MRM asking for my permission to use one of the pictures that I have in my Flickr sets. I´m fine with NGO´s asking for permission to run photos for their purposes since they obviously have no budget for royalties, but I think this trend of agencies and advertisers fishing on pods like Flickr, luring amateur -- or pro -- photographers with photo credits is concerning, and I also think we should refuse to play that game. Am I being too paranoid about this? Any comments? I´m pasting below the full emails (skipping the personal details) and my reply in case anyone is interested in the full case (excuse my English) Thanks, Miguel Pereira miguel.pereira@miguelpereira.es www.miguelpereira.es _____ On 11 Dec '06, 8.54pm CET XXX said: My name is XXX XXX. I work for Mastercard’s advertising agency, MRM Worldwide. We are working on Priceless.com, which is a user submitted website. Our guests submit whats called “Priceless Picks”. Picks can be anything from their favorite restaurant, a favorite travel location, a unique shop, etc… You can look at the current picks at www.priceless.com We are currently working on a Priceless Pick about Lisbon. We would love to use your photo(s). We wanted to ask permission to use the the following photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/miguelpereira/99425720/ We do give photo credit and would be willing to list your flickr name or full name. Can you please email me back as soon as possible at rudine.james@mccann.com and let me know if you are interested. Thank you, XXX MRM Worldwide 646-XXX-XXXX XXX.XXX@mccann.com On 11 Dec '06, 8.54pm CET miguel.pereira said: Dear XXX, Thank your very much for your message and for our interest in my pictures. I understand your goals and the nature of your project but I am dissapointed that and reputed agency like MRM and a large client like MasterCard are trying to obtain free pictures leveraging your brand names to lure photographers in exchange for a credit line. I totally sympathize with your work and what you´re trying to achieve; I´m sure the project doesn´t exactly have a huge internal budget, and you´re probably think that working for a large agancy is working against you in this case. But the truth is that both MRM and MasterCard are powerful agent in the advertising industry and I think they shoudl act accordingly for the good and for the bad. I simply think it´s not right to fish for pictures asking for non-paid permissions to skip royalties, even if it´s for a small-scale Internet project. I would be happy to see my pictures in this project but I just think it´s wrong for us photographer to give away our rights and our intellectual property for free, because this would show little value for our own work. If the project is small then please offer royalties accordingly; if you don´t have large budgets, I would be willing to give more pictures for the price of one. I´m sure there soliutions which are more than simply giving away our work in exchange for a photo credit. I constantly receive requests like this from NGO´s and non-profit organizations through Flickr and I always give my permission to use pictures (if I have the model release when there is a model involved), but it´s the first time I get a request like this from a company like MRM, and quite honestly, I´m dissapointed. That said, I really thank you for your attention to my pictures, and for the kind tone of your message. I hope I have not been too blunt in my answer, and I really mean that this is not personal, it´s simply that I know how corporations work, and I just feel it´s wrong to go with that flow when it comes to our work. Unfortunately, I´m sure others will give you wht you´re looking for. Let me know if you´re interested in my pictures on a royalty-per-use basis, even if the amount is very low. Otherwise, I still wish you good luck with your project. Sincerely, Miguel Pereira miguel.pereira@miguelpereira.es Madrid, Spain www.miguelpereira.es 15 2006-12-11T23:07:32Z 0 2008-03-12T12:55:17Z false 10243 false 3484 2006-12-16T08:01:48Z Madrid true false advertisers_and_ad_agencies_fishing_for_free_pictures_in_flickr 1 2008-03-12T12:55:17Z 9228