一觉醒来，
CGTN作为一家以身作则的媒体，
坚持使用视觉中国的图片。
因为视觉中国表示，
所以当视觉中国站出来说，
我们未曾颤抖，
因为我们是视觉中国的付费客户呀。
然后视觉中国说，
国旗
国徽
这显然不对了，因为国旗国徽属于人民。
这大概是视觉中国早早为自己立下的Flag.
共青团中央振臂一呼后，微博上自发开展了一场“大家来找茬自己LOGO”的活动：
众品牌一致心声——
连人民日报也表示——
最后简单概括一下：
终于，天津网信办看不下去了，半夜出手：
视觉中国网站404至今，
却毫不影响其屠榜微博热搜
这大概就是传说中的——
Visual China Group, usually described as the Getty Images of China (the two actually are financially related), became unwillingly the center of attention online after being discovered by social media users to be claiming copyright ownership of images under creative commons license or belonging in the public domain, including the first ever photo of a black hole and images of the Chinese flag and national emblem.
The social media outcry raised governmental awareness and led to the Tianjin branch office of The Cyberspace Administration of China ordering the VCG website to be temporarily shut down for restructuring.
以黑洞照片为例。
On the official website of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) which published the photo of the black hole, it is clearly stated:
"Unless specifically noted, the images, videos, and music distributed on the public ESO website, along with the texts of press releases, announcements, pictures of the week, blog posts and captions, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible."
What then, is a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License?
Creative Commons website screenshot
VCG, as a visual content provider, acquired the photo and the right to use it for editorial purposes from AFP. In fact, CC BY 4.0 doesn't prevent VCG from selling the photo, as long as appropriate credit is given. But if users credit it as "VCG Photo" it may actually be deemed copyright infringement.
对于视觉中国贩卖黑洞、国旗国徽及企业标识等图片使用权的合理性，新闻实验室公众号用了这样一个比喻：
“这就好像有人用塑料袋接了一口袋空气，然后把袋子扎紧说这空气卖 500 块钱。至于有没有人愿意去买它的空气，那就是另一回事。”
钓鱼维权碰瓷惹众怒？
这次视觉中国深陷版权黑洞，大众的反应基本是这样shi儿的：
究其原因，大概是由于其钓鱼维权后天价索赔，从而“要挟企业签年度合同”的核心商业模式——
这个系统指的大概就是视觉中国自己财报中提到的“鹰眼”系统：
“视觉中国”不止一个？
此番视觉中国的图片版权风波，或许仅是当下图片行业乱象的一个缩影。
此次被国内媒体“起底”的，同样还包括图片网站、全景网络旗下的“全景”平台。
据报道，“全景”在没有取得肖像权或所有物权授权的情况下，将国旗、党旗、党徽照片及众多前国家领导人的肖像等进行售卖——其网站上图片信息中的授权许可，明确写着“未取得模特肖像权或所有物权授权”或“未知’，但仍可在线支付。
“标准授权”价格从200-1000元不等，“完整授权”有1500元、3000元两种价格。
目前，点进“全景”网首页，网站显示的是系统正在升级维护。
将目光转向海外，号称全球第一大图库的Getty Images也扮演着耐人寻味的角色。
视觉中国作为Getty Images在中国唯一授权的代理商，与其有着紧密的合作关系。
视觉中国创始人之一、副总裁柴继军曾向上证报记者表示：“Getty是我们的老师，我们希望学习它。视觉中国与Getty拥有非常长久的战略合作关系，双方充分信任。”
作为国际图库市场的“老大哥”，Getty也陷入过类似的版权纠纷。
This development has made other companies sensitive to copyright infringement. Licensing giant Getty Images, for example, is no stranger to being accused of profiting from public domain content and claiming copyright for content that it doesn't own.
2016年，Getty及旗下一子公司便遭美国知名摄影师Carol Highsmith 起诉，称其涉嫌出售原作者通过国会图书馆捐赠给美国公众、超过18000幅被认为是“属公共所有”、“免费”照片的版权。
起诉书指控 Getty 出售这些捐赠给公众的照片时根本未经授权许可，其还向使用这些照片的网站和公司收取使用许可费，并假装自己拥有这些放入“公共领域”的内容的合法版权，甚至以侵犯版权为由，向创作者本人的非盈利基金会发送恐吓信并开出了120美元的罚单。
此举被原摄影师发现后，Getty被一举告上法庭并被索赔10亿美元。
但Getty坚称此事存在误解，认为照片版权终归为公共领域所有，其行为性质只是单单散播公共领域内容，并无侵犯版权之说。
结果如何呢？
法院驳回Highsmith对Getty的10亿美元索赔，原作者也放弃了进一步维权，事情不了了之。
In 2016, the company found itself in a copyright dispute when renowned American photographer Carol Highsmith filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the company, claiming misuse and false attribution of her public domain images donated to the Library of Congress.
However, the case was dismissed by a U.S. District Court Judge as Getty Images argued that the photographer had no right to claim misuse or infringement because she had given up that right when she donated her images to the public domain.
Prior to the case, Getty Images and Agence France-Presse (AFP) were ordered to pay $1.2 million to a freelance photojournalist for their unauthorized use of the photographs he took in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and posted to Twitter.
On Friday morning, the National Copyright Administration of China issued an announcement in response to the VCG matter, vowing to include image copyright protection in the upcoming "Online Sword Campaign 2019" to further enhance the rectification concerning the copyright of image market.
今天上午，国家版权局针对视觉中国一事发声：
近日，“黑洞图片”版权问题引发关注。国家版权局重视图片版权保护，依法维护著作权人合法权益。各图片公司要健全版权管理机制，规范版权运营，合法合理维权，不得滥用权利。国家版权局将把图片版权保护纳入即将开展的“剑网2019”专项行动，进一步规范图片市场版权秩序。
也许未来的某一天，许多媒体从业者还会回想起曾一度被视觉中国律师函支配的恐怖。
为什么这篇推送里还是出现了图片呢？
因为世界毕竟不是视觉中国的呀。
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