COPYRIGHT LAW
Here’s Why Image Copyrights Matter for Writers, Bloggers, and Editors.
Update to handling story photos policy for Illumination Integrated Publications on Medium
2022 Policy
New writers: Please review and comply.
2022 Update
All images require provenance in every post submitted. We highly recommend for our writers make good use of the free image sites listed in this policy note.
Those that are on other sites require hyperlinks that the editor can visit to verify provenance. If this is not possible because the image is behind any kind of wall, the author must post under each image the following disclaimer:
‘The author assumes responsibility for the copyright of this image.’ Be aware, that our editors have the choice to reject the story from publication in Illumination; or, take other measures.”
Context
The most painful duty for our editors has been dealing with copyright issues in story photos for the last two years. There is not a single day our editors don’t face photo handling issues as more than 15,000 writers contribute to our publications. We wasted hundreds of hours while handling photo issues. Please remember that our editors are volunteers so they invest their personal time to help writers to be successful.
Furthermore, more than 50% of these writers are relatively new on this platform, mainly coming from blogging backgrounds. Therefore, most of these new members are not familiar with copyright issues in commercial platforms, such as monetizing content for creators. For example, copyright rules for fair use differ in commercial and non-commercial platforms.
Even though we mention the photo handling issue in every onboarding pack with guidance tagged to new writers joining our publications, since some writers are not paid members, they don’t seem to be reading the instructions. As a result, they keep breaching the rules and causing frustration to our editors.
As part of our diversity and inclusion values, we allow all levels of writers, regardless of their membership status, and tolerate their mistakes as long as they don’t post harmful materials and attempt plagiarism.
Our primary goal at ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications is to provide an inclusive platform for writers to succeed on Medium. In this regard, we task each of our editors with the job of ensuring that your stories comply with governments’ laws and Medium’s rules. Our editors protect our publications and Medium from publishing harmful content.
This post provides an update on addressing writers’ requests to use copyrighted images under “fair use”. In order to comply with the laws of the United States and Medium’s rules and guidelines (“Laws and Rules”), our publications have strict rules about the use of “Images” of any kind (photos, graphics, vectors, graphic designs, GIFs, etc.) in submitted stories.
By March 2020, managing issues related to story images had become such a nightmare for our editors and created so much contention between us and writers, that our owner and chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz issued this strict policy document and implemented it.
While the situation has improved, image issues are still the number one reason a story does not get accepted upon review by our editors. As we have many new writers and the amount of information in our onboarding packs can be overwhelming, we felt it prudent to issue this short post reinforcing to everyone the importance of adhering to our policy.
Here are the key bullet points applying writers of ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Technology Hits, SYNERGY, and Readers Hope
The Policy Includes Three Key Items
1 — All Images in stories must be copyright-free.
2 — All Images in stories must be cited (captioned) with image sources.
3 — All Images in stories must comply with the Laws and Rules (which again is defined as the laws of the United States and Medium’s rules and guidelines).
Types of Images Accepted
1 — Copyright free stock Images
2 — Copyright-free Images for public use like Wikimedia commons
3 — Personally owned Images
4 — Images from subscription services providing evidence of the subscription ownership
5 — Images that have been created or significantly customized with tools like Canva and Photoshop. Please see samples below for exceptions.
Types of Images NOT Accepted
1 — Copyrighted Images from any source for which permission to use has not been obtained. Please do not make “fair-use” exception arguments. Most of us are not lawyers, and I will not risk allowing my editors to make decisions that require such specialized knowledge
2 — Screen captures from commercial websites, videos, and films
3 — Images downloaded or captured that have been uploaded by other people to social networks or online platforms, publications, magazines, books, etc. This prohibited item “3” does not include the capture of the text, and only the text posted to social media platforms, i.e., the image of a typed tweet, which would be a compliant image.
4 — GIFS and animated GIFS — For the protection of all readers’ computers, GIFs of any type are not permitted. If you have created your own GIF, you may include a static .jpg or .png of it as an image.
Fair Use Addendum to Photo Handling Policy
As quoted above, the policy contains a request that writers do not ask us to accept stories with copyright-protected images under the “fair use” exceptions to copyright law as most of us are not lawyers and we do not want to risk allowing our editors to make decisions that require such specialized knowledge.
Nevertheless, writers too often make the case to us that their use of images should be accepted under “fair use.” Thus, one of our editors, who does have the specialized knowledge to address these requests, published this highly educational and practical supplement to our policy.
Please review this addendum documented by one of our editors Marcus who has a legal background with the contribution of several other senior editors
Thank you for reading our policy. We look forward to your contributions.
References from Writers and Editors
This article was posted by Jennifer Geer, senior editor of Illumination Integrated Publications on Medium.
This article was posted by Susie Kearley a top writer on Illumination.
References from Writers and Editors
This article was posted by Jennifer Geer, senior editor of Illumination Integrated Publications on Medium.
This article was posted by Susie Kearley a top writer on Illumination.
This is update of our policy by ILLUMINATION
How To Caption Wikipedia Images by Michael Nagy
Meet Our Editors
When you receive private notes from our editors during the review process, please respond to them. Here is a list of our editors. Please follow their caring advice for your protection.
We will add more editor profiles soon. You may also bookmark this collection managed by ILLUMINATION-Curator so that you don’t miss when we add new profiles. Collection of Editor Bios: Meet Editors of Illumination Integrated Publications.
Useful References for New Writers
Improving the Quality of Writing Using an Editorial Checklist
Copyright Matters: Zero tolerance to plagiarism on ILLUMINATION
Invitation to Potential Writers
To join our vibrant publications, please send a request via this link. We will help you gain visibility and succeed as a writer on Medium. Please mention the publication name with your Medium account ID in the request. If you are new to Medium, you can join via this link. Readers can read thousands of stories and writers can monetize self-published content.
