Taken by Rachael Dickson, found on Wikipedia entry pages.

I’m not exactly certain how this happened, but it’s true. A picture I took at a McCain/Palin rally in Fairfax, Virginia, back in September, is on John McCain’s Wikipedia entry. I was there covering the rally for UWire’s Youth Vote ‘08 Blog.

It’s also on Sarah Palin’s entry, an entry having to do with the 2008 presidential campaign, and “The Masked Avenger’s Prank on Sarah Palin.”

I’m not exactly certain how I feel about this. I found it by googling myself randomly online, looking at the google results for “blogs” and seeing someone had used a picture taken by me, that they found on Wikipedia.

I know how it got up there, actually- I let Aram put the photos up on flickr so he could link to the album off of Mason Votes. I did ask specifically that he not put a creative commons copyright on it, as though I like the idea behind it, I prefer to have more control over my writing and photo rights while I’m working towards making a living off of it, but he put them under something where people could still download them somehow (I’ll be honest, I don’t understand all the different designations completely- it’s something I need to study). Someone must have just downloaded the photo and put it up online.

This came up earlier when a Japanese newsmagazine (English Zone) asked if they could use one of my photos from the same rally in their magazine. Though I was very angry at Aram initially, I did end up allowing them to use the photo on the condition that they gave me a credit and sent me a copy. I have the magazine in my desk now and it does look very nice.

It’s one of those things I struggle with- on one hand, my photo is all over some of wikipedia’s most looked at entries from this year. That probably has more people seeing my work than ever before. On the other hand though- I just found out about this and according to wikipedia, the photo was placed up on Sept. 17. Shouldn’t I have the right to know what happens with my property? Also- it’s not like this helped me at all. It didn’t raise my visibility in any way- who looks at who takes the pictures that end up on wikipedia?

Though I may have taken this photo in particular for a blog that I was not paid for, I have been paid for my work on multiple occasions before. I am 20 years old and just starting to really work professionally and I very much dislike this feeling of being taken advantage of.

I have no legal right really to ask wikipedia to take this photo down. It was obtained and downloaded legally under the copyright agreement on flickr- I was given credit (which really is something after all- I could have just not been credited and I would never have known). Though I’m still fairly furious at Aram for putting this up in a way that it could be so easily taken and distributed, I did give him that permission and it’s not like he did anything illegal or illicit.

And I don’t know if I want to- I feel…proud. Proud that someone looked at that photo and was like- wow- we need that on John McCain’s entry on wikipedia. Proud that it’s still up there after three months.

I honestly feel helpless in this sort of situation. I don’t necessarily like having my work up there for so long without ever being informed- but I can’t do anything to keep people from taking it and doing whatever they want to with it. I am just one girl. I don’t have the legal team of The Washington Post to keep people from posting their photos all over the web. For the record, I don’t actually own any of the rights to the photos I take for LoudounExtra.com- that’s pretty standard in the newspaper industry.

I became a journalist because I love writing- I grew as a journalist once I discovered my love for photography and videography as well. My photography has really improved over the years and I am very proud of it now. That photo? I took it from 100 yards back with a camera I’d bought the day before. I still consider the photos I took that day at the rally among my very best.

I want people to read and look at my work and take something from it- an appreciation for something they didn’t know before, a different view at a story or even just a great understanding of how crazy the crowds were at a rally that day. The more people that see my work, the better.

But I don’t want to be taken advantage of. This isn’t just a hobby for me- this is my life. This is what I am trying to build a career off of.

And I am torn.

In any case, I’m adding a google alert for my name now- if any of my work gets posted around online in the future, I want to know right then, not three months later.