A warning when using the Visual Bookmark feature

I’ve been happily using Ghost for three years, and one of the things I most love is the Visual Bookmark feature. I publish a newsletter that contains links to news bits in the world of wool.

Well, today I got a nice legal notice from the Associated Press, to whom I’ve linked a few times over the years. They have decided that the tiny thumbnail image within each Visual Bookmark leading to their site falls within licensing requirements. And they want $500 for each time I used it.

I’m going to write them back and explain how visual bookmarks work (both on Ghost and basically everywhere) just to confirm they’re really this short-sighted.

In the meantime, word to the wise. Be careful what goes into those links.

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Is the letter from a company named PicRights?

Copyright infringement is a real thing BUT Picrights is not pursuing real copyright claims. Picrights is a fraudulent company with an unethical business model is to harrass and antagonize small little bloggers until they pay some wildly exorbitant fee for generally unintentional misuse of generic photos.

Reddit: received threatening copyright infringement letter from PicRights

And here a more detailed post…
Copyright Infringement Notice Letter from PicRights

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It is!

I assumed it was a scam but then saw that the Associated Press actually claims to have hired them and asks people to “resolve those matters directly” with them. Thank you for these links and for calming me down a bit.

Through that Reddit thread I also found a link that specifically addresses the embedded photo in web link issue.

Specifically, in cases like this, the photo was never actually “placed” on my site—my site linked back to a specific location on the Associated Press website, where the photo appeared—a photo one assumes the Associated Press has licensed to appear on its website.

Nothing was downloaded or saved or uploaded or embedded by me–it’s all on the Associated Press site, programmatically incorporated in the link.

What a waste of everyone’s time, isn’t it?

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