Are you a Squarespace user? If so were you aware....

[Box Brownie]

Hi All

I post this in case it is of interest and/or relevant to others here at LuLa (NB I do not use the above company)

I read on another forum about Squarespace, who I think are used by a wide range of photographers to host their content, linking up with a provider I only vaguely recall mention of called Unsplash.

The hookup tells Squarespace users they can use Unsplash photos for free anywhere in their site (as I read it)...............does this belittle the value of photography and if you are a user of their service does this also expose your photographic content to abuse by others using it for free???

Here a link about it https://blog.squarespace.com/blog/add-beautiful-new-imagery-to-your-website-for-free-with-unsplash

As I say, just posted FWIW for your perusal and insight.  (NB if I have misunderstood and read it wrong ~ sorry  )

HTH?

[Jeremy Roussak]

if you are a user of their service does this also expose your photographic content to abuse by others using it for free???

I don't read the text as suggesting that this is the case.

Unsplash has an active group of contributing photographers from all around the world who have generously decided to share their work with others in the broader creative community, for free.

What is worrying you?

Jeremy

[john beardsworth]

Maybe read this, Jeremy? https://blog.photoshelter.com/2018/11/squarespace-is-officially-screwing-photographers/

I'd never heard of Unsplash before, but plenty of social media sites and competitions include clumsy attempts to grab rights, so this seems yet another variation.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

While I lament the downward spiral of the perceived monetary value of photography, and I lament the existence of people willing to give it away for free to strangers on a massive scale, I hold the principles of freedom in higher regard. If there are people willing to freely do so, there is nothing to do about it, but lament.

Blame the technology. The internet and digital. They made it so easy for everyone to capture and share beautiful and spectacular that the world is inundated with mega gazillions of it. While the motivation to share it for free ranges from vanity (“look, ma, someone liked my photo enough to use it”) to the altruistic desire to “spread the wealth” (thanks, BO), that is, to spread the beauty, it ultimately boils down to free will, the existence and defense of which I fully support.

[Jeremy Roussak]

John, I'd not read it but now I have. It doesn't alter my view, which is as Slobodan's. Individuals who keep their photographs on SquareSpace have nothing to fear: they are not giving rights away, or at least not to Unsplash (I've not read SS's full terms and conditions).

The photography business, on the other hand, gets beaten with yet another stick. But if some people are prepared to give away their work, and if other people who might otherwise pay are satisfied with the stuff they can get for free, the people who charge will have to find some method of persuasion: that's life. It's tough, and I sympathise, but it's life in a market economy. What solution can you propose?

Jeremy