Quote Originally Posted by JohnNJ View Post
Scamming may be part of it but if you look at the inquiry thread on BallPythonZone.com at

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=86844

you can clearly see that the focus is on "stealing" the photos but I do understand your point.

Photographers protect their work for a different reason than reptile breeders. Reptile breeders should focus on the reptile. If I photograph a house, no one cares whether I own it and I don't get permission from the homeowner before shooting.

What happens if I go to a big snake breeder and photograph all of the snakes and put those photos on my snake based website as part of the overall design - not in the collection or available sections. The photos are mine but the snakes are not. I can put my watermark on the photos and no one can claim that I stole them. What then?
We went from one subject to another (I guess you just can't help yourself but have to complain about something)

The person taking a picture is the owner of the copyright whether the animal belongs to them or not. (if that clarifies copyright ownership of a picture for you)

Now people who go to other breeder’s facility and take pictures and use them on their website do not claim to own those animals, know better than put them in their collection page or use them for their website design.

If they did I would strongly assume they asked the animal's owner if they could use the picture as part of their web design or such and would give proper credit to the owner.

A breeder that let you in their facility know that you will post those pictures online and if they objected to this they would simply not allow you to take pictures.

Now to the original subject, because I post pictures online (forum, my own website or any other venue) does not mean I allow Joe Schmoe to use MY picture and post it on his myspace, on a forum or his own website. Even if proper credit is given I would still not agree and ask for the picture to be taken down (been thee done that), why? It is pretty simple if you want to post a picture that belongs to me have the courtesy to ask me if it is ok for you to do so. (Respect goes a long way)

Would I give the right to some people to use my pictures if they were courteous enough to ask? Absolutely been there, done that too.