Has the end begun?
Browsing Tumblr last night, I came across my first image takedown notice.
Now, this might not be a sign of doom. Tumblr has always had a route by which you could report unauthorized use of copyrighted work. But in two years on the site, I have never before seen an image removed icon -- for a second I thought it was a remote host error or something, before I remembered that such a thing would make no sense on Tumblr -- so of course my thoughts go to the Yahoo acquisition. Which, as it happens, closed today. Coincidence, or is this the canary in the coal mine? Only time will tell.
It's been awhile since anything I posted on Tumblr got this many notes, and it's been interesting to watch the evolution of the reblogs. Some of the commentary has been disbelieving, others have been alarmed, but the one that catches my eye the most is the "but hey, at least now there's a way for us to report people who repost our art instead of reblogging it" reaction. Does anyone really think that Yahoo's top priority is going to be taking down unsourced fanart? No, the most likely target is images and video copyrighted to major media IP holders, and if that starts happening en mass, you can forget Tumblr as a viable fandom platform.
Not jumping ship yet; this isn't meant to sound the alarm. But you can bet that I will be keeping a very close eye out for more of these.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/633715.html. There are currently
comments on DW.
Now, this might not be a sign of doom. Tumblr has always had a route by which you could report unauthorized use of copyrighted work. But in two years on the site, I have never before seen an image removed icon -- for a second I thought it was a remote host error or something, before I remembered that such a thing would make no sense on Tumblr -- so of course my thoughts go to the Yahoo acquisition. Which, as it happens, closed today. Coincidence, or is this the canary in the coal mine? Only time will tell.
It's been awhile since anything I posted on Tumblr got this many notes, and it's been interesting to watch the evolution of the reblogs. Some of the commentary has been disbelieving, others have been alarmed, but the one that catches my eye the most is the "but hey, at least now there's a way for us to report people who repost our art instead of reblogging it" reaction. Does anyone really think that Yahoo's top priority is going to be taking down unsourced fanart? No, the most likely target is images and video copyrighted to major media IP holders, and if that starts happening en mass, you can forget Tumblr as a viable fandom platform.
Not jumping ship yet; this isn't meant to sound the alarm. But you can bet that I will be keeping a very close eye out for more of these.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/633715.html. There are currently
comments on DW.