soloboxerboy's blog

I have kept quiet long enough on something that I have seen in countless profiles on here and on other sites where people post the following:

"Any institutions or individuals using this site or any of its associated sites for studies or projects - You do NOT have my permission to use any of my profile or pictures in any form or forum both current and future. If you have or do, it will be considered a serious violation of my privacy and will be subject to legal ramifications"

This actually means nothing if a student or researcher wants to use your photos, your profiles, or anything that they are able to obtain via this website or any other. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that for educational purposes and research purposes permission is NOT needed from the owner of the website, the owner or subject of the photos, or any information available in your profiles, websites, or anything floating out in the public domain.

Putting this statement into your profiles does absolutely nothing to stop a student from creating a presentation and showing it in class. It does not stop a researcher from looking at the site and pulling statistics, photos, details about where we all live, what sports we like, sexual orientation, and whatever else they can gather.

This is clearly stated:
17 U.S.C. § 107

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:[8]

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
the nature of the copyrighted work;
the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

This part of the law also would invalidate the site's Terms of Service section number 11, as any college student, professor, researcher that has access to the site may use the information for any research, papers, class projects, teaching, etc., as it would be in accordance with the Fair Use part of the Copyright Laws. Having said that, I would hope that if someone on this site were to use the information, they would cover faces if using photos and omit names and telltale marks to try and protect all of us.

I find it amusing that a number of people on this site post this disclaimer, yet have committed copyright theft by having photos from other websites, television shows, photos from the WWE, Pro Boxing events, and other violations. Before posting that you wish not to have your information and photos stolen and used, maybe you should delete the ones that are illegally posted to your profile on MeetFighters and other sites. Sadly, any all copyrighted photos on this site that you cannot produce a copyright release for could have you sued by the owner of the copyright, and even though MF has stated that they expect you to have the right to post the photos, they are quite aware that the WWE and other such entities will never give that right for such use as posting on MF or any other such site, and therefore MF could, in the end, be shut down, it's owner(s) sued, and that could lead to you not only being taken into court by the owner of the photo(s), but my MF so that the owners may retrieve their money and loss of business.

Be smart. Don't post photos if you don't have permission (and can prove it with a copyright release), don't post this ridiculous statement about not allowing anyone to use the photos and info, you may state that any use of your works, photos, information that is used for profits, personal or business gains (excluding MF as it is part of the Terms of Service) will not be tolerated and will be met with legal action, as that type of behavior is not one of the exceptions to the rules.

As a semi-professional photographer, hopefully, a future educator, and one who has had to deal with copyright laws regarding photos for years, please take a moment to delete or alter this statement and to purge your profiles of illegal photos.

Thank you.

Many people use the Photo Peer Review to classify all the photos that are posted on MF. Sadly, many have no idea what is copyrighted and what is not. Technically, if YOU didn't take the photo, it isn't yours, so it is copyrighted to the person who took the photo.

If you post a photo with a Watermark, it IS A COPYRIGHT and needs to be classified as such.
If you post a photo from another website, IT IS A COPYRIGHT
If you paid money to have the photo taken, and DO NOT have signed documentation from the
photographer/studio, then IT IS A COPYRIGHT. This type of photo should NOT be posted on MF,
as it could possibly lead to MF facing legal action, as the Photographer/Studio owns the copyright
and has the right to demand the photo be removed from MF, and failure for that to happen could
result in MF being sued to be shut down. Let's not let that happen, please!
If you post a photo and put your email address on it, it implies that IT IS A COPYRIGHT, and should
classified as such.
If the name of the photographer/studio is on the photo, then IT IS A COPYRIGHT, and should be classified as such.
MF states in the Terms of Service:
BY UPLOADING YOUR PHOTO, YOU CLAIM THAT YOU OWN THE COPYRIGHT AND GIVE US LICENSE TO DISPLAY IT ON YOUR PROFILE. IT IS FORBIDDEN TO UPLOAD RANDOM PHOTOS FROM THE NET, OR ANY OTHER MATERIAL FOR WHICH YOU ARE NOT THE COPYRIGHT OWNER..

Just because you pay for a photo shoot, does not mean that you own the photos. Photos are owned by those who take them or the studio that employs the photographer.
For example, just because you purchased the BluRay of The Last Jedi, does not give you the right to make copies and hand them out. Do that and Disney will sue you and take all they can get from you. You DID pay for the BluRay, but only to watch it, not copy it, not charge other to see, not to make any money off the BluRay, as doing so violated the copyright that belongs to Disney.

So, let's get the classification of photos done correctly, in regards to Copyrights. When in doubt, it is better to classify it as a Copyright, as this will help protect YOU and MF.

I am a semi-professional photographer, and also manage a photo center, so I take copyrights very seriously. When I classify a photo as a Copyright, then 99.9% of the time, it is....Notice I did not say 100%, as everyone makes a mistake now and then. I will say that if I were to take photos of us boxing, I would happily give a copyright release to you.

Thank you for reading and doing your part to help protect the creative work of photographers.