Pony Up!

I got into trouble this week responding to a post on Facebook.

The post was advertising a 4-H'er's pig for sale after the end of its show career. I did not have an issue with them selling the pig, my issue was with the use of the watermarked photo copied from the photographer commissioned by the show fair to capture images from the show.

Boy did I open a can of worms!

My comment was simple: Stop using the watermarked photo. Pony up a few bucks for the photo if you want to use it to sell the pig.

Many people took exception with my words. Some put the character of the family on a pedestal. Others said "what's the harm?" While others said I was a stick in the mud Boomer.

Maybe the original poster didn't realize they were stealing the photos, maybe they didn't care. Either way, why do we think it is acceptable to use these images without paying or at the very least giving credit to the creator?

I've seen this pattern my whole career. A professor talks about their graduate student's work as if they were the one in the barns weighing and bleeding pigs. A sales manager brags about a deal one of their team sweated to close. A CEO thanks "my vision" for what engineering and support actually built. It's always someone taking credit for labor they didn't do.

Using a photographer's watermarked image to sell your pig is the same move. You wouldn't want someone taking credit for the months you put into that animal. So don't take the photographer's work for free either.