A talented photographer posted her photos on Flickr, and when another company stole and sold the pictures, she wrote a post about it. After almost 450 people had voiced their support, Flickr deleted the artist’s post, and cries of “Censorship!” ensued. But now Flickr’s co-founder, Stewart Butterfield, has stepped up and apologized.
“I have a pretty good idea that we screwed up – and for that I take full responsibility (actually, several team members are fighting to take responsibility),” he wrote in a post on the photo-sharing site. “There are several policies which will be changing as a direct result of this incident and the goal is that nothing like this ever happens again.”
Butterfield explained that his company was not trying to censor anyone, but instead, to protect people. “The photo was deleted – again, mistakenly – because of the direction the comments had gone, which included posting the personal information of the infringing company’s owner and suggestions for how best to exact revenge. It is an emotional issue and most people were there to support Rebekka in a positive way, but some of the angry mob behavior crossed the line.”
Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir, the photographer in question, had indeed won a multitude of supporters. Notable names included Thomas Hawk and Steve Rubel, and even British giant BBC has covered the story.
Rebekka appears to have remained good-natured throughout (and despite) the ordeal, however. “I, personally, am not going to leave flickr,” she wrote on her blog. “My account runs out in 5 days and im going to renew. The flickr community is a very special thing, and im not going to let a bad move on the part of the people who run flickr, cause me to abandon it.”
But, even if Flickr and Yahoo have been let off the hook, Only-Dreemin – the company that allegedly stole Rebekka’s work – has yet to compensate the artist in any way.
