Photographs of fans: An addition to Fanlore's Image Policy

[fanloremod]

Thank you to everyone who has submitted feedback on the proposed addition to our Image Policy regarding photographs of fans on Fanlore.

 

Because we have already received a great deal of feedback on the draft policy, we have taken the decision to close the comments in order to get to work on revising this policy.

 

We realise that the original proposed text of the policy would not have been at all sufficient to protect fans' privacy and identity in the online world that we live in, and that this disappointed and alarmed many people. We fully acknowledge that it was not in line with what fandom would have expected from Fanlore and our commitment to protecting fans' identities, and we sincerely apologise for this. We will take all of the concerns expressed on board and work to produce a policy that is much more robust in protecting fans as we carry out our mission of documenting fandom.

 

Thank you again to everyone who took the time to respond to this proposal.

Original policy text:

Can I upload photos of fans to Fanlore?

Please be thoughtful when uploading photos of fans. Is this your own photo or one you found online or in a magazine? If you know the person in the photo, check with them about how they feel about their photo being used, or how they feel about a photo of themselves being uploaded. If a fan has passed on, reach out to their family or friends.

If you do not know them personally, then consider the context where the photo was taken and how widely it was distributed. Has it already been posted online? Was this a large public convention or small private event? Was this published in a fanzine, newsletter, newspaper or magazine? Consider whether the photo is being used to document a group activity or being used to identify a specific person.

If you are concerned about identifying individuals, one option is to upload a smaller or lower-resolution photo, or elect to not identify specific people (refer to them as "a fan" or "fans") unless it is necessary for the photo's purpose. Also, please keep Fanlore's Fair Use Policy in mind when uploading images you do not own.

If you would like to get more guidance on a photo you are planning to upload, please contact the Fanlore Committee, selecting the subject 'Editing help' from the menu. If you are concerned about a photograph on Fanlore that features you, please use the contact form to get in touch, selecting the subject 'Identity Protection' from the menu.

Linking to photos, as long as the photograph is public, is permitted and can be an alternative if you are unsure about uploading a photograph to Fanlore.

Comments

We live our lives online unknowingly

[morgandawn]

One thing that has become clear to me, is how little consideration we currently give to these issues in our daily lives.

The vast majority of protest or concert photos that are posted online on Twitter, Tumblr and elsewhere do not have consent. In fact, people rarely give any consideration to posting a photo of a crowd shot at ball game with hundreds of people visible in the fore and background.

Only recently have I heard in the context of black lives matter and other protest actions, individual participants stressing to other individual participants the importance of not posting identifiable images of people

Another reason why I'm glad that we are having this photo discussion, because up to this point very few images of people have been posted to Fanlore. But given how casually fandom and society now treat posting personal photos online, it seemed time to discuss.

Re: We live our lives online unknowingly

[dhampyresa]

Your experiences are not universal. Some of "us" are very angry at how widespread visual surveillance has become.

This may be your first exposure to the concept of "don't put identifiable photos of people online without consent" but it is not everyone's and Fanlore would do well to consult people who have experience in these matters (especially in the context of non-US laws -- Fanlore might be based in the US but some laws apply based on where the picture was taken and/or who is in it).

Re: We live our lives online unknowingly

[fiachairecht]

One thing that has become clear to me, is how little consideration we currently give to these issues in our daily lives.

Actually, most people I know *do* think about these things daily, either because they work in tech/law/journalism/photography/non-fannish archiving, or because their employers/family would not look kindly on them being involved in fannish things. The reason this policy is getting so much pushback is that people *have* thought about these issues and come to the conclusion that a) they don't want photos of themselves online, and b) posting photos of strangers with identifying information online without their consent is actually super creepy, and linking them to something like fandom - which, sorry, is not nearly as neutral as a sports game in the eyes of many people and employers - is even worse.

Re: We live our lives online unknowingly

[vaznetti]

I think you're absolutely right, that given how casually society in general treats posting personal photos online we should be having this conversation. One thing that strikes me, though, is that in fact a lot of people have been thinking seriously on these issues, both on a personal level (by opting out of Facebook, Instagram, etc) and on a national level, (via legislation that's been passed in e.g. France and Germany about who has rights to whose image.). Where I live this is an issue which is regularly brought to the attention of parents, for example -- you can't post pictures containing other people's children taken at achool events, for example.

I think it may be worth drawing a distinction between crowd photographs in high- and low- reputational risk activities. Going to a football game is not really a reputational risk, but for some fans being pictured at a con might well seem more risky, if it could lead (via the use of e.g. facial recognition software) to the linking of a fannish persona and a professional one.

I do like the idea of the OTW keeping an indexed archive of this photographic or video history, but sometimes archivists have good reason for not posting material on the public internet. This might be such a context.