Why I Add Text To Images
Posted in OAImages News by John E. Pannell on January 23rd, 2007 at 8:00 am On Cloth Talk #21, Chris Brightwell discussed how to upload images to the Scout History Wiki. He mentioned that folks should not add any sort of additional text to the patch image. I can understand the desire for a nice clean, uncorrupted, image on the Wiki. Watermarks, especially, can be very annoying and distracting. See Getty Images for an example of what I mean.
Some folks have wondered why I add text to most of the images on the site, usually saying something like “This image courtesy of…”. I have several reasons for doing so:
- On the most basic level, it is an expression of gratitude for donating to the site, a way of saying “Thank you”;
- Sometimes the donor of the image requires it as a condition for using the image online. This is especially true with very rare items;
- It makes the image readily recognizable if someone else tries to use it. This is especially useful for when someone steals images to illustrate their eBay auctions.
I am honored when other collectors want to use this site to illustrate their own personal or a lodge’s site. Go for it. However…
At the bottom of most pages on this site, I write, “…The images here are free for others’ non-profit use. Use of these images for profit without express written permission is expressly and strictly forbidden…”
If you want to sell items on eBay take the time to create your own image of the actual item you are selling. Don’t take someone else’s image.
Hi John … I wanted to take a minute to go over why I advocated the non-use of watermarks for the wiki.
First and foremost, we want this to be a “pristine” image archive. We want it to be high-enough resolution that folks can tell the differences between very similar issues (the 310 S6/S7 debacle is a good example), but we also want people to be able to use these images on personal sites and whatnot with little difficulty.
The wiki maintains credit to the uploader (and subsequent uploaders), maintains a version history, and reserves certain rights. Specifically, it revokes the for-profit use of the images.
More specifically, the content of The Scout History Wiki is published under what’s known as a BY-NC-SA license, which is detailed a bit on our copyright notice.
Hope this helps.
The only thing we lose, realistically, is the immediate visibility of a “borrowed” image. Everything else remains the same. 