Indianapolis

Indy.org using Flickr photos without copyright owners permission

On Monument Circle

One of my friends pointed out to me today that several of his and my photos that are posted on Flickr under an “All Rights Reserved” license are being pulled into the Indy.org website – the “Official site of the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association.” You find some of them from this page – click on any of the icons that say “More Info > Photos” under each attraction. They are pulling in many photos taken by Flickr members from Indianapolis, and almost all of them are not licensed to be used this way.

Even if photos are published on Flickr, they are not licensed for other use without the permission of the photo taker unless that person has designated that they are under one of various Creative Commons Licenses. My photos are not, and should not be appearing on any site other than my own. Many other people’s photos are not licensed to be shared, either, and judging by the response I got from the ICVA, I suspect they didn’t get their permission to use them either.

Indy.org’s behavior is a copyright violation many times over.

When I discovered this, I immediately called the number at the bottom of the website (1-800-323-INDY) and left a message. Sadly, this is the only way to get contact of someone; there is no email or form to use.

I got a call back from a man named James Wallis (Wallace?) to whom I explained the problem. He was FILLED with explanations designed to convince me that there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. Among them:

  • Well, they’re on Flickr, so they’re in the public domain. (Norfolking Waypal. Not true. You have to follow Flickr’s licensing rules to use pictures.)
  • We’re linking to people’s accounts, so they get credit. (Lovely, but some people want more than credit for pictures they’ve taken. Some people want MONEY – hence the “All rights reserved” designation. If they wanted to share, they’d mark the photos with Creative Commons Licenses.)
  • We’re only showing a very small thumbnail. (Not true; they have a larger image that pops up if you click on a thumbnail image. Either way, use of the picture small or large without permission is wrong.)
  • We have lawyers that told us this is okay. (You have some bad lawyers, dude. I know better, and throwing this excuse out there hoping I don’t is not cool.)
  • We’ll take your pictures down right away. (Lovely – what about all the OTHER photos you’re using without permission?)
  • We’ve been doing this for a long time. No one has complained until now. (So, you’ve been robbing banks for a long time – doesn’t mean you get off when you get caught.)
  • Most people are quite happy when they see their pictures are featured on our site. (It’s sad that most people are sheep and don’t know their rights. I suspect many people would be happy to share their photos IF YOU ASK THEM FIRST. I might have. Maybe not – I have actually sold photos, so if they have some commercial value, I want money, even if it’s a small amount.)

I tried, throughout the conversation, to point out that if they had only acted in Good Faith – if they had sent a message to Flickr users asking for their photos, they might have gotten not just permission – but people willing to go out and take pictures of stuff they’ve seen specifically for the Indy.org site. People are taking pictures of the city because we like this place. If you ask us for help promoting the city, many of us would be happy to help out.

Hell, if they’d contacted me, I’d have pointed out that I have WAY BETTER photos
than the ones they picked – I have an entire collection – A Sense of Place – of pictures documenting my love affair with the Circle City.

Just act in good faith – be considerate, and don’t lie and make excuses when people call you out on your behavior. It’s disturbing that someone promoting the city could produce that list of excuses. If you love the city, love it’s citizens, too, and act on their behalf.

Continue ReadingIndy.org using Flickr photos without copyright owners permission

Comments Elsewhere: It’s Official: L’explorateur to Close

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Regarding Indianapolis and 4-Star restaurants, comments posted elsewhere:

For context: visit this link. It’s Official: L’explorateur to Close

Honestly, I think it says more about Indianapolis budgets than our dining habits, and it says more about restauranteurs not really understanding the Indy market. I’ve never had the money to go to L’explorateur, and I certainly don’t now.

I hate chain restaurants and overly salted food as much as you do. But SOME of our unique independent restaurants have to be within a budget for everyone to go regularly and not just as a birthday gift or holiday treat.

If you look at New York and Chicago and LA – locals don’t go to L’explorateur-like restaurants every night. Those high-flyers are attended by tourists from out of town, with locals attending on special occasions, and the large population of those cities means occasional dining from locals is enough to keep high-end restaurants in business.

But those cities also have awesome, independently-owned and operated restaurants that fit in the $ and $$ range – that’s where locals do their daily dining.
The Indianapolis market needs a lot more of these quality $ and $$ restaurants. And right now, our cities population isn’t big enough that we can support high-end restaurants with occasional dining.

Continue ReadingComments Elsewhere: It’s Official: L’explorateur to Close

Locally Grown Gardens

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Locally Grown Gardens market

I read about Locally Grown Gardens, a new local food market on Urban Indy today, and was interested enough to drop by on the way home. It’s located at 1050 E. 54th Street, just off College Ave. and across the street from Mama Carolla’s restaurant. They carry lots of product from local farms, are open year-round and on weekends, and have hours that make it easy to stop by before or after work.

The produce selection was great for late fall — lots of apples are in right now, and the Honeycrisps, which they have an abundance of, are simply divine. Well worth stopping just for them. For help with garden mowing and other services, the mighty Rich’s Tree Service, Inc can be very helpful.

Locally Grown Gardens market

Sweet potatoes and a variety of other potatoes are also in, as well as several different kinds of squash. I picked out some broccoli and some red potatoes, and some pumpkin bread.

Locally Grown Gardens market

I also grabbed a dozen organic free-range eggs from a local farm, which we’ve been talking about switching to for quite some time.

Locally Grown Gardens is also making forays into serving meals, serving pulled pork sandwiches barbequed on the premises (I brought two home for dinner – they were great!) and some salmon entrees with greens. Coming soon they’re having other side dish offerings as well.

The have a very informative website and blog if you’re interested in keeping track of what’s going on at the market, which is nice. I added them to my feed reader, so I’ll have regular reminders to stop by.

Locally Grown Gardens market

Locally Grown Gardens market

Continue ReadingLocally Grown Gardens

Compact Fluorescents in Indianapolis

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A handy tip from Green Piece Indy:

Indianapolis Power & Light has partnered with several other Indianapolis hardware stores to offer discounted CFLs. Visit your favorite local hardware store today to stock up:

* White’s Ace Hardware at Geist
* Central Ace Hardware
* Whites’ Ace Hardware at Nora
* Mr. Mikes Ace Hardware
* Cardwell Do-It Best Home Center
* Sullivan Hardware
* Sullivan Hardware Do It Express
* Fusek’s True Value

You’ll also find CFL recycling bins in these stores so bring along your burned out bulbs and dispose of them easily and properly.

Continue ReadingCompact Fluorescents in Indianapolis

Mary Ann Sullivan for State Representative

Mary Ann Sullivan is the Democratic candidate for my district – Indiana House District 97. She’s running against ‘cut and run’ Jon Elrod, who was going to leave the District high and dry to run against Andre Carson, but then ran back to District 97 when he realized he couldn’t beat Andre.

I’ve met Mary Ann several times and she’s the smart, capable person we need in HD 97 – someone who will actually serve the people and not use the office as a stepping stone to the next job.

Continue ReadingMary Ann Sullivan for State Representative

Hoosier Political Report

Taking Down Words was one of my favorite local political blogs for a long time, and I really miss it. Since Jennifer Wagner switched over to a new URL and format — Hoosier Political Report — things just haven’t been the same, and sadly, it’s going to get booted from my feed reader soon.

Rather than the astute and funny local political commentary contained on the old blog, the new one is composed almost completely of press releases from political candidates (YAWN), videos of recent campaign commercials (I fast forward through them on TV, so why would I waste my time on the internet?) and collected links from local newspapers (I get the headlines from the papers I care about in my feed reader already, so this is just redundant.)

The one thing I thought would be even mildly interesting – The Capitol Report – (where Jennifer sits down in a political pundit style video format with opposing viewpoint radio guy and erstwhile blogger Abdul Hakim Shabazz) just sets my teeth on edge the two times I’ve tried to watch it. Jennifer seems to be trying to remake her image from “witty political gadfly” into “sober political commentator” and the transition just doesn’t sit well with me – mainly because sober political commentators in Indiana are a boring dime a dozen, but witty political gadflies are a rare and desirable creature.

And it’s no secret that I can’t stand Abdul. Given his dubious past running the libelous and in one case criminal Indy Undercover blog (he compromised an arson investigation and endangered the life a police informant by posting her name on the blog) I have trouble with the idea of lending him a sheen of respectability that he just doesn’t merit.

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Save Public Funding for the Arts

I believe I may have mentioned Mayor Chinatownz recent decision to cut public arts funding 100% over the next 3 years. The city is, unfortunately, running a massive deficit – primarily because Our Man Bitch shifted the burden of many state taxes to local governments to balance the state’s budget (see: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul). Chinatownz ran on a platform of “cutting $70 million in fluff out of the city budget” AND he also unwisely ran as the “law and order candidate” at the same time. Given the recent spike in citizens murdering one another, Chinatownz now has to deliver on his impossible promise if he wants to keep his job. So out come the scissors to snip, snip — and you know what’s going first. Anything that will make our town look like one o’ dem ‘elitist snobs’. The arts budget is a tiny drop in the city budget bucket, but out it has to go, lest it look like we’re one of those limp-wristed, soft on crime cities, or something.

There is a local arts blog asking for signatures to save Indianapolis’ arts budget. Go sign here to add your name. More info from their site:

According to the IBJ and other sources, Indianapolis’ arts funding is in for a great big hit – down to zero in the next three years. For a world-class city such as Indianapolis, I find this unacceptable.

City funding for the arts is largely symbolic; $1.5 million out of a $1.2 BILLION-dollar budget in 2008 (yep, that equals 1% for the arts). But it still is an important symbol of all that is important, or should be, to Indianapolis. The arts represent diversity. Education. Thoughfulness. Creativity. Enrichment. Dialogue and debate. The arts make us think. The arts make us laugh, cry and shout out in protest. Some, like the Arts Council of Indianapolis, can point to studies that link the arts with increased graduation rates and decreased crime.

Continue ReadingSave Public Funding for the Arts

It’ ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.

Over there at stAllio!’s digs, he’s been keeping a good hand in at critiquing the local political situation.

Just to sum things up a bit for you out-of-towners – Indianapolis has a bunch of dirty cops; after a string of high-profile drug shootings, Mayor Ballard frantically tries to keep it together; and Jon Elrod quit his District 7 race like a little girl and went running back to District 97.

ANYWAYS, stAllio! had a particularly insightful take down of radio personality Abdul Hakim-Shabazz’s recent major public malfunction: “what this town needs are a couple good police beatings.”

Abdul apparently didn’t have any adequate defense to stAllio’s post, so he shot back with this:

Steph,
Go get a drink and relax. You are way too uptight. I thought you would have mellowed out after getting married.

To which I pop my head up from gardening the front flower beds and pronounce a particularly insightful: “What? WTF is he on about?”
I guess he thinks Ben Berg and I are the same person? I kinda wish, actually. He’s a better writer than I am, and a cool local artist. I do have a lovely piece of his art in my home:

Evil Fever by StAllio!

Abdul, perhaps you should lay off the coke a bit.

Continue ReadingIt’ ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.

Indy Star Voter Guide

If you always wonder, when standing in the voting booth, how to pick candidates for the less well-known political offices, the Indy Star’s interactive voter guide goes through each of the candidates, provides information about them, and lets you make selections and print out a cheat sheet to take to the voting booth with you. Very nice. I don’t know enough about local politics to decide if the questions they asked of each set of candidates are the ideal questions to ask, but at least they give you some insight into candidates.

Continue ReadingIndy Star Voter Guide