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

[alexseanchai]

Better idea for image policy: Uploading a photo of any fan requires explicit permission from every fan in the photo. Identifying any fan in the photo requires explicit instructions from that fan about whether and in what manner to do so.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I would suggest that people start taking pictures of different objects that 'fan' refers to. That way, should someone need to be plausible 'edited', fandom will have the raw materials.

To whit, there are large classroom fans that take a hand truck to move and small oscillators retrofitted with mesh. I leave it to people with more linguistic meter to frex outside the Anglophone box.

[gelliaclodiana]

I don't usually comment on posts like this -- my fandom involvement these days is fairly limited -- but I think this is not a very good policy for the fans themselves, given the public nature of the internet, and the transient nature of fandom. Even if an image is taken down it will certainly be chached and copied, and mat be reposted elsewhere. At minimum, I think that all identifiable persons in the photograph should need to consent before it can be posted on Fanlore; surely those who cannot be found to give their consent can have their faces blurred to avoid identification. But I think that this is a case where it is better to ask for permission than forgiveness. Many of us would not be harmed by having pictures of us engaged in fandom activities posted publically, but it is important to all of us to protect that group who would be.

[kore]

I agree with this absolutely.

[larissabernstein]

This is such a spectacularly bad idea! I am very fond of Fanlore, and I support the OTW, but with this policy regarding photos you just earned my disappointment and a very concerned frown.
Photos of fans should ALWAYS require the consent of each one depicted. Linking to photos that are hosted elsewhere does not make this policy any better!! There are still many of us who cannot afford this kind of visual doxxing!! I hope you reconsider.

[gelliaclodiana]

Also, I don't think it's reasonable for fans to have to monitor uploads to Fanlore to ensure that any photographs of them are labelled correctly/taken down/whatever they prefer. But again, this is a problem that could be prevented by requiring permission before a photo can be uploaded.

[mab_browne]

Can I upload photos of fans to Fanlore?

How about no?

[kingstoken]

I know others are saying no fan images unless explicit permission is given by everyone in it, but I think that would be next to impossible sometimes, for example group shots of cosplayers are quite common at conventions, sometimes these can include dozens of people, often people who do not know each personally, and usually the only person that is known online is the person who shared the picture on their cosplay blog, deviantart, tumblr, etc. I just think it would be next to impossible sometimes to get permission for group shots, getting permission from the person that took the photo would be fine, but every person involved would be very difficult, if not impossible sometimes, and I think Fanlore would be a poorer place for not including the images showing the history and growth of cosplay.

[bluedreaming]

I also agree - if consent for each individual (and instructions on how to identity or not) cannot be found, but a photo meets other listed criteria (group shot, public setting, publicly posted, individuals not identified, consent of photographer given, important for fandom history etc.) blurring faces should be a minimum. I don’t think that would detract from the history of cosplay at all, especially given the most-often pseudonymous nature of fandom. Linking to a publicly posted photo seems ill-advised because of the exact nature of where photos can be posted (difficult to determine a rubric of explicitly-fannish posting places that carry inherent “proof-of-fannish-intent”).

[myrdschaem]

This. In fact, in the law of some countries this opens up legal issues that are actionable. I am not sure if a swift take down will protect from that.

[tptigger]

THIS

[myrdschaem]

As other noted, this is not a good idea. Ask permission first should be used as a standard and for cosplay or different fanwork photos, if people can't be reached, there should be a norm on how to anonymise. Fans in Japan and other East Asian countries have informal etiquettes of blurring faces that could be a template.

This also conflicts with international laws such as the German "right to your own image" and other privacy laws. Making the picture distribution opt-out is possible something that would violate these laws, that even be punished with a prison sentence.

Someone familiar with German and EU laws should look this over and other privacy protection laws around the world should be considered in the overhaul of this policy.

[muccamukk]

This is alarmingly poorly thought out. Photo posting should be opt in, not opt out. You folks have a whole policy about keeping pseuds and wallet names separate, and protecting people from getting doxxed, but suddenly posting pictures in the days of data scrapping and facial recognition software is fine? That's not okay. At the absolute minimum, you should have a way to opt out forever, like with wallet names.

Aside from people getting outed as writing, say, underage Harry Potter slash fic (illegal in some countries), having issues with their employers, families, friends, being found by stalkers and harassers (anyone else here have someone who used to publicly crosspost any/all damaging information they could dig up on them? Raise your hand!), there's also issues around people who do not want pictures available due to issues of gender identity and dysphoria.

I love Fanlore, and I use it often, but this is a terrible idea. Please reconsider it.

Edited to add: I understand that this is an attempt to draft a policy where previously it was a free for all, and I appreciate your work on this, I just feel it could be more restrictive than is currently worded.

[aphrodite_mine]

THIS.

[toft]

I want to add my voice to the other comments here - I don't think this is a good idea. Photos appearing on fanlore should require the consent of everyone pictured. Faces can be blurred out in group shots where this is impractical.

[surskitty]

+1

I think requiring that faces be blurred if they did not specifically consent to being posted on Fanlore is a decent minimum standard here.

Teachers are infamously prone to being fired for existing outside of their work, not to mention the wide ranges of abuse situations out there.

NO

[(Anonymous)]

Don't do this. What is wrong with you??

[eruthros]

This policy seems to be incompatible with the existing Fanlore policy regarding wallet names and pseuds. Making it an option for the uploader to identify a fan in a photo as "a fan" or to identify them as "astolat" can make a very short jump from pseud to wallet name.

Also, some public conventions have explicit photo policies banning posting photos without consent of the people who were photographed, so using "public" vs "private" as a context clue doesn't consider the many fine gradations of public-ness.

[larissabernstein]

As someone who has done cosplay before or stood next to a group of cosplayers at conventions when photos were taken *for private use* (never for publishing on Tumblr etc), I would hate to see my pic on Fanlore. And I would hate it even more if I were identified on this pic with my fannish name. Simply blurring the faces of those who did not give consent should be easy enough.

[larissabernstein]

Yes, blurring the faces or putting a big sticker on top (I've seen this done by fans from Japan) would be an easy solution for group shots. The easiest would be to refrain from posting fan photos at all, of course, but it seems Fanlore has made up its mind there.

As for the laws:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recht_am_eigenen_Bild_(Österreich)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recht_am_eigenen_Bild_(Deutschland)

Two examples how the right to one's own image is protected. Most European countries handle that similarly. If I am in a big group in a decidedly public setting or, for example, I'm one of a handful of anonymous tourists next to a public monument or landmark, things are different, but fannish conventions are often private spaces, and the pics that we are talking about are taken specifically of the people depicted, not of the architecture, so uploading photos without consent of the depicted can lead to lawsuits. I, for once, WOULD SUE.

[cathexys]

As so often, the desire to archive our past and the individual's right to be forgotten are at odds here. As we are "by fans, for fans," it seems pretty obvious that the needs of the fan exceed the desire to keep an account, especially given that we are getting into doxxing territory here.

My main question would be what purpose the images might serve and whether any of those purposes would be hindered when blurring faces. The main argument I'm seeing for uploading pics seems to be cosplay, and the costumes are mostly just as visible even if faces are blurred.

We don't even have images of our OTW board who all serve under RL names and in their public personae. Why would we want to upload pics that are private or taken from places with minimal circulation? The lines are too fine and the risks too great to permit such a policy!

[frogspace]

"Photos of fans" seems very unspecific and too broad for the purpose of the policy. For example, someone in a full spider-man costume at a convention probably can't be identified using a picture taken at the convention because they are wearing a mask. Also, people who are not "fans" would be excluded by that wording. The focus should be on the "indentifying individuals" part. If an image can be used to identify someone, it should not be opt out. The identifying information should be blurred by default.

[destina]

Totally agree with everything vaznetti says here.

[teaotter]

This is a terrible and easily abused policy. Are you going to maintain a giant opt-out list? What about people who don't monitor Fanlore and don't know about this? Anything like this should be opt-in, not opt-out.

Better: all fan faces must be blurred/covered unless the fan has publicly posted somewhere that showing their face is acceptable. It'll be easy for you to check if a photo is in compliance with the policy, and people can still choose to be visible if they want to (by posting publicly about it). Then you'd only have to maintain a list of people who changed their minds later and no longer wanted to be shown, which would be a much smaller list.

[gelliaclodiana]

It's really good to know that there is already a pre-existing etiquette elsewhere in fandom on how to anonymise images, and it strikes me that we in western media fandoms might easily adopt it, rather than having to reinvent the wheel!

I wonder, since this post is clearly an attempt to form a policy for Fanlore, whether they might adopt it formally?