Be Willing to be Uncomfortable - episode 215
It started with her own need to lose those last 12 pounds after having twins. Courtney Gray used that desire along with motivational tips she’d picked up along the way to change her mindset. And it worked. You start with being radically honest with yourself. From there you learn how to deal with limiting beliefs, how to handle urges, along with other strategies you’ll need to be successful. You’ll likely be uncomfortable but you can do hard things. Courtney will teach, encourage and more. She’s found a passion and turned it into purpose creating ways to help women be more of who they want to be.
Intense. Positive. Motivating.
— Courtney Gray
I Got in Trouble
Thoughts from Be Willing to be Uncomfortable
I just love this picture of Courtney. For starters it’s in black and white which is fun. Next it’s playful, her expression, hand in hair. The light is behind her which is more on the unusual side yet it totally works. Her smile and eyes radiate warmth and beauty. I like how photos can convey so much. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe they’re right.
I recently had an interesting event occur around two photos. They went alongside two blogs from a couple of years ago. In one I had saved a picture of a photo from Parade magazine of Father Mychal Judge who was the first victim identified from 9/11. I dutifully (I thought) found out the original source and credited the photographer along with the news agency. I had googled a bit and felt I had done the right thing. A couple of weeks prior I had used a photo of strollers that Polish women had placed at a train station for Ukrainian women who would need them as they escaped from the war. Again I credited the photographer and the news agency.
Fast forward a couple of years. I got two emails from the same company telling me I am in violation by using those two photos without proper permission and was being fined. Being the kind of person I am, sensitive, striving for integrity, I felt like I was in big trouble. You remember the kind. Like when you were a kid and you knew you had blown it, you knew there were h-e-double hockey sticks to pay and you knew you would have to face the music soon enough. After feeling sick, I started my research. I googled the company you contacted me and what I found was rather murky. Some people said they ignored the notices. Some said they waited until they were contacted by lawyers. Some went ahead and paid the amount in full. What would I do?
Since it was unclear to me if this was legitimate, I waited to see what might happen next. Sure enough I received two more emails from the same company billing me $575 for one and $650 for the other. (Yikes! Some of you know I have not monetized the podcast or blog so that would certainly not be paid out of any earnings.) Feeling still in trouble I decided to do further research. I asked the company to prove they were authorized to demand payment and to a Swiss bank in fact. Does that not scream scam? They sent me some docs but honestly I couldn’t tell if they were the real thing or not. I took my research to a new level. I found a way to contact the two news agencies and asked if in fact this company was representing them.
While I waited to hear, I talked to a friend that’s a lawyer. Her assessment was that it was a very questionable, scummy thing this company was doing and she had a hard time believing these two reputable news agencies would hire them. Well guess what? I heard back from both news agencies and yes, this company had been authorized to find people using photos without proper permission.
Next? I decided to see how much it would cost to go through the agencies and pay for the photos the correct way. The fee looked reasonable but it was per year and how does that work? Anyway, I shared this with the nefarious company, along with the fact that my endeavor was not a money-making business in the traditional sense, and would they consider bringing the costs down. Well, long story short (I know, too late), they did and I paid $431 and $437 for both photos and the promise to take them down which I had done when I got the first emails.
So here’s a thought or two. Why is a photograph different than words? With someone else’s written text you need to acknowledge and cite your source when including it in your work. I want to know why a photograph is different. They are both considered text in educational circles. They are both provided by skilled, typically professional people. So why the difference between what is written and a picture being seen? In education we say that reading and writing is literacy and that a picture is visual literacy. I can’t say I understand why you can freely cite one and are prevented from citing the other without having secured expensive rights. These are the kind of injustices that get my educator/type A/Enneagram 8 Protective Challenger/Enneagram 1 The Reformer, and so on, and so that I am at my wit’s end. It doesn’t make sense and it values (or seems to) one kind of expression over another.
Oh how I wish I could share with you the two photos but then the bots that found them the first time would find them again and I would be in big time-trouble. If you are curious about the visual choice I made to replace the images they can be found with these quick blog links: Come Together and The Aftermath. In my final research I found a caveat that I chose to use for The Aftermath. It’s call Fair Use and here it is explained:
Fair Use allows you to use an image based on three conditions. First is if it is used for limited non-profit and educational use. Second is if it is changed so drastically that it no longer has the same meaning or purpose, and third is if it is used informatively for the public good.
So is the image below used for limited non-profit and educational use? Yes, I think so.
Is it changed so drastically that it no longer has the same meaning or purpose? Yes, I believe so.
Is it used informatively for the public good? Heck, yeah, for sure.
You’ll have to decide what you think of all this hoopla. In conclusion I understand rights but don’t think they are equal between writers and photographers. In thinking I was doing things correctly I found out I was not and had to make it right. I did not do it begrudgingly. I was actually glad once the payment was sent. On to a Swiss bank though? It will always feel a little funny because I thought I was doing things on the up and up. When you don’t, you course-correct in the best way possible. I will share with you the picture that replaced the picture of Father Mychal Judge. It is the top photo of a collage I made. The second picture is the prayer on the prayer cards he carried in his pockets every day. The last photo is one my friend Mary took when she went to 9/11 before they built the memorial. It’s rubble they found still standing, in the shape of a cross. Finally you can see my reflection as I take the picture. I created this piece and had it framed in rustic wood that has red hues running through it. It means so much to me not because it’s high brow or anything but because it is simple and representative of sorrow, of hope, of the insistent need to carry on. What does it say to you?
How are words valued less than the picture they represent?
— RCN
