Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with attribution

Who owns this image?

ismaelsobek — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:26:49 -0800

I'm making a magazine (for a class), and one of the articles is about video game addictions. I wanted something that stood out for the title page, and I found this great little image. I used parts of it (pieces of the image, as well as the exact color) to make the title page image. Before the magazine is uploaded to a public site (downloadable, but not for sale), however, I need to know who this image belongs to. I've searched, but it shows up on so many sites without attribution, as well as on coffee mugs, t-shirts, magnets and a plethora of other stuff that it's impossible for me to figure out who really made it (and who owns the rights to it) so that I can ask them for their permission to use it.

What is the original source of this quote about immortality?

joe lisboa — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:28:09 -0800

"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." What's the original source for this quote? I've long thought this quote was from Nietzsche, specifically The Twilight of the Idols, but my googling turns up attributions to both a Susan Ertz (author) and a D.P. Barron. Any readers of Nietzsche out there who can help me locate something in his corpus that resembles this passage?

Can you help find the author of this photo?

EL-O-ESS — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:04:23 -0800

Can you identify this photo of a precocious little girl curled up with the Foucault Reader? Asking for a friend:

This image has made the rounds on myspace profiles and blogs, but I've never seen it attributed to anyone. A colleague would love to feature it in an upcoming project, but would need to contact the author for permission.

Can anyone help locate the original source of the image?

How to attribute Creative Commons images?

Ulleskelf — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 01:25:21 -0800

Is there a correct way to attribute images used under the Creative Commons system? I work for a non-profit and we'd like to use more Creative Commons images in our website. I've only used one so far - when I did I put "Shopping baskets. Image by flickr user xxxxx, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 license" in the ALT tag? Is that enough, or does it actually need to be text on the page?

What is the source of this Dostoevsky quote?

Stauf — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:59:00 -0800

What is the sources of this quote attributed to Dostoevsky? "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." I see this a lot, but where does it come from? Is it from one his literary works? His notes? Was he quoted as saying it? I can't seem to find an answer via The Google.

Avoiding plagiarism - specific questions on attribution...

soulbarn — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:51:18 -0800

I am writing a book - a non-academic, non-fiction book. I am using lots of academic materials as sources, and generally I simply mention the source in the text when I am quoting directly - or summarizing an original idea contained in the source (I use footnotes when the attribution requires more info and interrupts the flow of the story I am telling.) I am, of course, especially concerned with the issue of plagiarism - I am keeping my notes tidy, attributing as above, and otherwise following the various rules I've read in the different handbooks for academic writing I've studied. But here are two questions.... 1) In my book, I've come to certain "big picture" conclusions. In my research, I've found a couple of authors who precede me who come to similar - though not exactly the same - conclusions (all our conclusions are somewhat novel, though I also think they'd be fairly obvious to anybody who spent a lot of time thinking through the topic.) I have mentioned both of these authors as above, when I've directly quoted their material or ideas, but what's the best way to present my conclusion, while showing that I sort of stand on their shoulders, but also that this represents my original thinking. All this, keeping in mind that this is very much a book for popular consumption, so whatever I do needs to be readable for a general audience.

2) One thing I haven't been able to figure out definitevely is the issue of quoting quotes from well-known sources. For example, some of the literature I've studied might use a specific quote from the New York Times. The quote is useful for me, as well. Do I have to attribute it to just NYT, to the author of the paper that originally quoted it, or both? I get wildly different answers on this depending on whether I ask journalists and academics...

thanks!

Quit accusing me of stealing your photo credit

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 04:54:00 -0800

I've been accused of something I didn't do: passing off someone's photograph as my own in a publication I write for. What's the best way to refute this, and how can I keep it from happening again? I wrote a couple of articles (one long, one short) for a small trade pub, and had taken most of the photos for the pieces already, but was pushing deadline on something else, so I asked our new babysitter, who is a budding photographer, if she could take a location photo (she lived next door to the location) of one of the subjects (buildings) of the piece. I stipulated that the pub didn't pay for photos, and that the editor would choose what got run in the pub. I said that I would tell the editor that this other person had taken this particular set so that she could get credited for any of her photos that were used.

The problem is that the babysitter and I have the same first name, so I wanted to clarify that and avoid confusion.I distinctly remember sending an email 8 weeks ago to the editor to that effect. (Can I find this email? No -- I sent it via hotmail and forgot to hit "save". )

So last week I get advance copies of the pub. Her location photo is on the cover, with an interior shot inside with the piece. No photos (at all, by anyone) are credited. None. No credits, no attribution anywhere, in the whole mag. I figure it's the policy of the pub not to credit anyone, say to my sitter "dang, I asked them to credit you, but it looks like no one else got credited either. And you can still tell people it's yours." I thought maybe I could try to see if they would credit her on the site, since the print version hasn't hit the web yet. Once again, I was on deadline, so I figured I'd get around to it this week.

Today I get an email from her accusing me of "taking credit" for her work. I sent her an email immediately saying I had asked for her to get credit, but that no one got credit at all for any photos, and that I'd email the editor to see if it was policy or an oversight.

Sitter says "don't bother, I already called to ask "who took the photos?" and they said you had taken them." -- I'm all, what? -- because yes, I had taken some, but some photos were press kit shots, too, and I had kept the emails documenting me stating that these are PR photos, aren't they nice, they're from the building people, not me, etc.

I think this is just a case of fuzzy memory from the editor (and of course my stupidity in using hotmail to send anything of the slightest importance). I'm trying to find any email trail at all -- not to blame my editor but to prove to my sitter that I did what I could to ensure her attribution. But meanwhile I'm getting nasty emails in response to my statement of "I'm really sorry this happened -- I definitely asked you to be credited -- I am NOT credited, nor is anyone else -- I'm doing all I can to find out/fix this issue." (Her emails say: oh, I'm sure it's all just a CONFUSION.")

Sorry for the long post, but I've spent the day feeling like puking over this. Anyone who knows me well knows that taking credit for anything not mine, or even passively letting people think I took these photos, much less lying about it, is not me. Not even close. (And I'm not credited with the photos! sheesh...) In fact, to everyone who has seen the pub I've said "[Sitter's Name] took this shot, and this one -- isn't it great?"

But this pub's editor doesn't know me well -- just since this summer. I'm worried that this will become something -- that my sitter will complain publicly about me, that people will google my name and see her complaint. I write for other pubs, much bigger than this one (I am attempting to break into a different market, thus my small pieces in this pub), so it's not a stretch to say I'm worried about my reputation. I've only been a fulltime writer since March, so my writing rep doesn't have years of righteous publication to negate such an accusation.

I feel strongly that I'm doing all I can, but at a certain point -- am I protesting too much? This is so awful. I can't even tell a white lie without feeling sick about , it's practically a family joke. I know I'm not the only one who's gone through this. And again, sorry for the length. I cannot rest with this hanging over me.

Which of Aristotle's works is this quote from?

grabbingsand — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 11:20:21 -0800

Context, please. This quote resurfaces from time to time, often as a back-handed commentary toward the left, but never with a source or any surrounding text: "Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms." It is attributed to Aristotle, but which work (if any)?