一覺醒來，
CGTN作為一家以身作則的媒體，
堅持使用視覺中國的圖片。
因為視覺中國表示，
所以當視覺中國站出來說，
我們未曾顫抖，
因為我們是視覺中國的付費客戶呀。
然後視覺中國說，
國旗
國徽
這顯然不對了，因為國旗國徽屬於人民。
這大概是視覺中國早早為自己立下的Flag.
共青團中央振臂一呼後，微博上自發開展了一場“大家來找茬自己LOGO”的活動：
眾品牌一致心聲——
連人民日報也表示——
最後簡單概括一下：
終於，天津網信辦看不下去了，半夜出手：
視覺中國網站404至今，
卻毫不影響其屠榜微博熱搜
這大概就是傳說中的——
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.
以黑洞照片為例。
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.
對於視覺中國販賣黑洞、國旗國徽及企業標識等圖片使用權的合理性，新聞實驗室公眾號用了這樣一個比喻：
“這就好像有人用塑料袋接了一口袋空氣，然後把袋子紮緊說這空氣賣 500 塊錢。至於有沒有人願意去買它的空氣，那就是另一回事。”
釣魚維權碰瓷惹眾怒？
這次視覺中國深陷版權黑洞，大眾的反應基本是這樣shi兒的：
究其原因，大概是由於其釣魚維權後天價索賠，從而“要挾企業籤年度合同”的核心商業模式——
這個系統指的大概就是視覺中國自己財報中提到的“鷹眼”系統：
“視覺中國”不止一個？
此番視覺中國的圖片版權風波，或許僅是當下圖片行業亂象的一個縮影。
此次被國內媒體“起底”的，同樣還包括圖片網站、全景網絡旗下的“全景”平臺。
據報道，“全景”在沒有取得肖像權或所有物權授權的情況下，將國旗、黨旗、黨徽照片及眾多前國家領導人的肖像等進行售賣——其網站上圖片信息中的授權許可，明確寫著“未取得模特肖像權或所有物權授權”或“未知’，但仍可在線支付。
“標準授權”價格從200-1000元不等，“完整授權”有1500元、3000元兩種價格。
目前，點進“全景”網首頁，網站顯示的是系統正在升級維護。
將目光轉向海外，號稱全球第一大圖庫的Getty Images也扮演著耐人尋味的角色。
視覺中國作為Getty Images在中國唯一授權的代理商，與其有著緊密的合作關係。
視覺中國創始人之一、副總裁柴繼軍曾向上證報記者表示：“Getty是我們的老師，我們希望學習它。視覺中國與Getty擁有非常長久的戰略合作關係，雙方充分信任。”
作為國際圖庫市場的“老大哥”，Getty也陷入過類似的版權糾紛。
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國知名攝影師Carol Highsmith 起訴，稱其涉嫌出售原作者通過國會圖書館捐贈給美國公眾、超過18000幅被認為是“屬公共所有”、“免費”照片的版權。
起訴書指控 Getty 出售這些捐贈給公眾的照片時根本未經授權許可，其還向使用這些照片的網站和公司收取使用許可費，並假裝自己擁有這些放入“公共領域”的內容的合法版權，甚至以侵犯版權為由，向創作者本人的非盈利基金會發送恐嚇信並開出了120美元的罰單。
此舉被原攝影師發現後，Getty被一舉告上法庭並被索賠10億美元。
但Getty堅稱此事存在誤解，認為照片版權終歸為公共領域所有，其行為性質只是單單散播公共領域內容，並無侵犯版權之說。
結果如何呢？
法院駁回Highsmith對Getty的10億美元索賠，原作者也放棄了進一步維權，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，國家版權局針對視覺中國一事發聲：
近日，“黑洞圖片”版權問題引發關注。國家版權局重視圖片版權保護，依法維護著作權人合法權益。各圖片公司要健全版權管理機制，規範版權運營，合法合理維權，不得濫用權利。國家版權局將把圖片版權保護納入即將開展的“劍網2019”專項行動，進一步規範圖片市場版權秩序。
也許未來的某一天，許多媒體從業者還會回想起曾一度被視覺中國律師函支配的恐怖。
為什麼這篇推送裡還是出現了圖片呢？
因為世界畢竟不是視覺中國的呀。
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