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China's Largest Stock Photo Provider Attracts Fire Over Use of Black Hole Image (techcrunch.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rather-unfortunate-events dept.

Reader hackingbear shares a report: As soon as the European Southern Observatory released the black hole photo, under Creative Commons license, on April 10, Visual China Group (VCG), China's leading stock image provider that's compared to Getty Images, made the image available for sale in its library without attribution to the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. "This is an editorial image. Please call 400-818-2525 or consult our customer service representative for commercial use," said a note for the black hole image on VCG's website. Internet users took to social media slamming VCG for monetizing a photo intended for free distribution among the human race. VCG swiftly revised the note to say the black hole photo should not be used for commercial purposes, but the incident sparked a plethora of comments on Weibo condemning VCG's opportunist business practice.

For example, the price tag of the national emblem image ranges from150 yuan ($22) to 1,500 yuan ($220.) "Copyrights protection should definitely be promoted. The question is, why is VCG allowed to price photos of the black hole and the likes out of the market? Why is it able to exploit loopholes?," Du Yu, a Beijing-based freelance technology journalist, said to TechCrunch. China's the cyberspace watchdog of Tianjin ordered the photo site to end its illegal, rule-breaking practices. "We have taken down all non-compliant photos and closed down the site voluntarily for a revamp in accordance with related laws," said VCG. Shares of VCG, whose executives are mainly American and Canadian citizens and filed 16 copyright lawsuits per day on average (in Chinese, Google translate), plummeted 10 percent Friday morning in Shanghai Stock Exchange.

47 comments

  1. 150 yuan ($22) to 1,500 yuan ($220.) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Well I'm glad Chinese money works on a linear scale

    1. Re:150 yuan ($22) to 1,500 yuan ($220.) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Barely. The more of it you have the less it's worth.

  2. Well, that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am proud of social media users for posting angrily about this. Surely China will care!

    1. Re:Well, that should work by Luckyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's actually one of the select few things that makes CCP apparatus act. CCP's primary concern is "societal harmony", which means that you can make your money illegally as long as you don't stand out.

      This company stood out because it attracted public's attention. Which is why it shut down the site ASAP when its people realised what happened. If it was up, CCP's political apparatus would have likely moved to crush it already as the outlier that disturbed the "societal harmony". Taking the entire site down shows the CCP apparatus that company is aware of its responsibilities to the Party, the nation and its people.

      If the storm on social media dies down, they will be successful. If not, CCP will likely either act to rapidly crush the company, or censor the social media, or both.

  3. I cant believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I cant believe China, of all countries, would ignore someones IP rights.

    This is completely Wong.

    1. Re:I cant believe it by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      FYI China and its companies file most copyright claims in the world by a large margin at this juncture of history.

    2. Re: I cant believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Throwing shit at a wall and hoping something sticks.

    3. Re:I cant believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because copyright claim filings are always super legitimate!

    4. Re:I cant believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I cant believe China, of all countries, would ignore someones IP rights.

      This is completely Wong.

      You misspelled "wrong". Also it's "PP rights".

    5. Re:I cant believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I cant believe China, of all countries, would ignore someones IP rights.

      This is completely Wong.

      Given the limitations of your intellect, restricted as it is by your 4chan education, I'm not surprised you claim disbelief at the antics of those yellow people

    6. Re:I cant believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, WTF are you talking about? You come in here with that bullshit but you can't even get the facts straight.

      That shit is $499 on getty.

  4. Shocking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    china.... steal IP and sell it as their own? surely not. this must be that clown world I'm hearing about.

  5. It is not opportunistic by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's theft.

    Call it what it is.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:It is not opportunistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They think they have a right to everyone else's stuff.
      What else do you expect from a communist country?

      And, yes, I know they have a bunch of capitalist mixins (Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Alibaba, etc.). But the root, the core, of communism is and always has been "You pay me money just for existing and I'll call it 'fair'". It's not about any high-falutin' ideals. At the end of the day you're a slave and all your earnings are taken by force without your consent and given to someone else.

    2. Re:It is not opportunistic by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

      Call it what it is. [Theft]

      Call it what it is: Black Hole Theft(!)

      Then hurry and get a patent on it "while you're filing on average 16 copyright lawsuits per day."

      --
      If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
    3. Re:It is not opportunistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they released it without the no commercial reuse clause, and cc is unrevokable. as long as they credit it they can resell it.

    4. Re:It is not opportunistic by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      I see, where did they teach you that theft of a copyrighted work (which all work is by creation) is ok in Communism School?

      I hold copyrights from works I did a long time ago. Stealing my work is still theft.

      Same goes for the picture.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    5. Re: It is not opportunistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like every economic system controlled by fearful, greedy people.

    6. Re:It is not opportunistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As far as I can tell, the creators used the CC BY 4.0 license.
      There's no restriction on commercial use, and no copyleft.
      It's pretty close to releasing software under a BSD license, which is how Microsoft could sell BSD networking code as part of Windows.
      So yeah, they infringed copyright by not including attribution, but once they fixed that, there's no further copyright issue here.

    7. Re:It is not opportunistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So yeah, they infringed copyright by not including attribution, but

      Let me stop you right there.

      Fixing a situation where you broke the law does not make you innocent.

    8. Re:It is not opportunistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not what communist means... and here in the USA we find plenty of regular big companies and individuals already stealing other people's work, specially in graphic arts and photography...

      Yo know how many smart entrepreneurs keep stealing other people's designs and making profit without acknowledge them? even Ivanka Trump's fashion company did steal original designs and tweaked them a little.

      The most common are those that make T-shirts, those that make stuffed dolls, those that make printed materials and of course... photo stocks.. like Getty and Shutter-stock...

  6. Anyone is allowed to sell it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The photo was licensed as Creative-Commons-Attribution. There is no problem with selling it, only with not giving attribution.

    1. Re:Anyone is allowed to sell it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what's confusing about this whole thing. Some people are mad that they are just selling it. That's not the issue as they used a CC license that allows commercial use. The issue seems to be they didn't attribute it to ESO and restate the correct license.

    2. Re:Anyone is allowed to sell it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and they added a commercial use footnote on the eso website but they still list the license as cc-by without the nc clause. http://archive.is/6JoDb

        they fucked up and on top of it didn't learn a thing

      also cc can't be revoked, for obvious reasons.

  7. Typical by kingbilly · · Score: 2

    I purchased something from Amazon this week. The product listing stated it included adhesive from 3M. When I got the product, the adhesive was a cheap knockoff and in most places it said M3, instead of 3M.

    1. Re:Typical by kingbilly · · Score: 1

      Dang, can't edit. Forgot to mention it clearly came from China. You could tell by the language on the box.

    2. Re:Typical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope you returned it and put up a negative review. People have to speak with their wallets or nothing will change on Amazon, let alone from the companies [largely in China] that are actually lying to people to sell their low quality stuff.

  8. Similar things happen to Wikimedia Commons images by xack · · Score: 1

    Even one of the wiki’s admins was in on the scam.

  9. Use a different CC License by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    The image was released under a CC 'by' license so technically the only thing this company did wrong is in failing to provide attribution to ESO. If they want to prevent selling of the image by others use the non-commercial clause and/or share-alike clauses. That being said just providing attribution is such a low bar and the company failed to even manage that so they really deserve to get a lot of grief about this.

  10. they're allowed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because it's the american way!

  11. Reap what you sow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    USA tells world they must use their draconian IP rules.

    China agrees, and files tons. (Don't respect others.)

  12. gimp by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    it seems silly when you can make your own black hole "photo" in gimp in a few seconds .

    --
    Nullius in verba
  13. Put some hair around it by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    ...and the hole will be censured throughout China.

  14. Standard procedure/policy by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 2

    This is precisely what just about every big IP company, from Disney to Getty & more, do. They're literally stealing control of content from others, including private individuals', CC, & public domain works. Don't like it? Tough: They'll bankrupt you in court regardless of whether their claim of copyright infringement is legitimate or not. It's quicker, cheaper, & less problematic to just pay them for it, and they know it. I'm not against copyright - creatives should get paid - but this isn't what's happening. How copyright law is implemented & enforced needs some major adjustments to level the playing field to make everyone equal under the eyes of the law, regardless of their ability to pay for hoards of corporate lawyers & law firms.

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  15. Alternate Source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One has to wonder why Visual China Group (VCG) would risk copying the original photograph when a stock photo of a donut cooking in a dirty deep fryer would've been a sufficient copyright-free alternative.

  16. No honor culture. by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    Trash ass no face society. Racist as hell. Believes they are a separate species.

    1. Re:No honor culture. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is not strictly true.

      They believe in showing honor only if they will be caught. Doing "the right thing" because it is right and honorable is a foreign idea to many mainland Chinese. There are many honorable Chinese, but those people seldom end up in positions of power. Guile wins most of the time, unfortunately.

      They've learned that saying you are sorry AFTER being caught is usually enough to have no business penalties.

  17. executives are mainly American and Canadians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When America and Canada sends its people, they're not sending their best. ... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems ...

    1. Re:executives are mainly American and Canadians by magarity · · Score: 2

      When America and Canada sends its people, they're not sending their best. ... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems ...

      You mean the executives who were born and raised in China, bought a US or Canadian citizenship and then immediately went back to China? They got it just so they can skip out more easily when the crackdown comes.

    2. Re: executives are mainly American and Canadians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am shocked you are confirming the orange man who said those words is a racist. /s

  18. You wouldn't download a black hole! by aaronb1138 · · Score: 1

    Filthy pirates!

  19. That's a different slant on it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep.

  20. While not politically correct by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's obvious to everyone except the policy makers that China will steal everything they can get their hands on.
    Regardless of what they say or what they promise, they will steal anything and everything.

    They will then tear it apart, improve upon it, re-patent it then file complaints against the world for stealing " their " tech :|

  21. Getty's sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Getty's saddened because they didn't do it first

  22. copyright racketeers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    business as usual for these crooks

  23. Not new, it's a long trend in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember the case of a woman that was billed to use her own photo.
    https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-getty-copyright-20160729-snap-story.html

    Companies sell iconic photos and public material all the time, dumb people buy them, smart people go to the library of congress or the NASA or the public institution that owns the material.