Photo Attibution

Enjoyment of using professional photos with proper attribution adds to the Local Guides experience!

Notice the attribution in my signature connected to the blue truck in my user profile image and occasionally posted directly into a text body like this!

@MortenCopenhagen , @ErmesT

I just want to pass along the important information that another guide shared with me, that we can only use photos that we take or that we properly attribute and that have acceptable use rights. If you like big trucks, you like this blue Kenworth in the mountains - but in fairness and proper responsibility, I didn’t take the photo, so the attribution has been embedded in my signature, and you can see it reflected again also in the photo caption.Please click like / love if you feel this is an important reminder!!! :grin:

4 Likes

What is wrong in this post, @Cowboy_Z is that what you say is not true everywhere.

Local Guides program belongs to Google Maps, and the Community policy says: "Take photos that clearly and accurately represent a location …

… Contributions must be based on real experiences and information. Deliberately fake edits, copied or stolen photos … are all in violation of our policy.

Users who abuse this trust will be removed from the Local Guides program"

What does it means? It means that the photo should be taken by you (real experience) and clearly and accurately represent a location.

Is the photo that you shared here reflecting your real experience of a department store in Colorado?

Is the other truck added by you in Maps clearly and accurately represent a non profit association in Texas?

Well, the answer is NO and, as you see, both are, according to the already mentioned Community policy, a good reason for removing you from the program.

This said, let’s go back to Connect (this community)

How do I follow the original content guidelines on Connect? will give you some clear indication on what content to share here, much better than what a Local Guide might have told you.

The starting point is that the words and photos you share on Connect should be your own. Originality is one of our five core values**, and we take copyright seriously.

Of course, you can give attribution for photos you received permission to use directly from the copyright owner.

Direct permission, not the use of photos that are declared as “free to use”. “Do not download and post photos from Google Search, Google Maps, social media, stock photo websites, or elsewhere on the internet without receiving permission from the owner of that photo”

Your photo used by you here (cropped) is everywhere in internet and most of the websites that give the permission of use require the credits and to add a link.

And in any case the permission cannot be extended to photos added in Google Maps.

I wrote a very long post to explain all the details of copyright and permissions. The post is on my signature, but I will share the link with you here: What if this Photo … is Yours?

I think you should read that post carefully

2 Likes

Hello @ErmesT , thank your the help in understanding the rules of the community more clearly!

Sometimes it takes me communicating through the details to orient correctly and I am new to LGC, so I appreciate the information on your links and the details you share. I have updated my profile picture to one I took by hand and will similarly make the updates you explain are needed in the reviews.

The misunderstanding I had is this: I believed that if photos were properly acquired, and that it is confirmed there is no copyright infringement to use them for personal reasons / non-commercial that is acceptable. Additionally, I believed that the share of a photo that is properly acquired could be an expression of a guide’s experience by expressing something the reviewer feels connects with their own sense of the place or business offering being reviewed. I was not clear about several of the points you have raised out. Now that I understand these things, I am upholding these standards.

1 Like

Hello @Cowboy_Z ,

Just to let you know, I am marking @ErmesT 's reply as a solution, so other Local Guides can refer to it. The purpose of this feature is to help Local Guides find answers when searching on Connect. Please take a look at How do I mark comments as solutions? article.

1 Like

Thank you @TsekoV

That helps me understand what @ErmesT was doing with his manner of posting response. He was leaving a solution in the search record. Thank you for providing more insight into LGC systems, that is very helpful!

I can now search for topics that have been solved and enrich my knowledge!

1 Like

What I am trying to say in my reply, @Cowboy_Z , is that even though we have rules, an answer must first be sought in the logic and spirit of the program.

  • We are Local. We know the places where we contribute with images, information, and edits
  • We are Guides. Our information / Images / Reviews are used by others to decide whether or not to visit places they do not yet know

For this reason our contributions must represent places, and our personal experience of them, and we do this by showing them through our images, summarizing our experience in reviews, correcting incorrect information.

We are original.

The rules, those come later, to formally reaffirm the principles that should be our guidelines. And of course, the rules also provide for penalties for those who do not respect these principles. But again, if we know and respect the principles and values, we will contribute correctly even without knowing the rules in detail.