Fleeced on Flickr?

Amid all the chatter about how using social media can help journalists and photographers broaden their audience and win new business, a cautionary tale emerges from the Flickr/Twitterverse.

Via @michald on Twitter, I notice that photographer Shaun Curry, who I believe works for AFP, has removed all his photos from Flickr and posted a holding image on the site (not the one pictured above) apologising to those who enjoyed viewing his pictures online.

His reason? Continued image theft. As he explains on his profile page:

Ive decided to move away from Flickr, due to image theft.
its a shame but i cant stand it anymore ;))

i will be getting a website together at some point in the future.
cheers all
x
shaun

if you still want to contact me about anything, feel free:

I’ve emailed Shaun to ask him for a fuller explanation, but on face value it seems a clear case of a working professional with a product to protect faling foul of the not-always-honest dwellers of the internet. It also seems to back up my general impression that professional photographers are less than enthused by Flickr, often seeing it as more of a risk than an opportunity.

This low-key assessment of Flickr’s usefulness came from another photojournalist in January.

I’ll report back in Shaun Curry comes back with any more information.

Top Image courtesy: Lovelypetal on Flickr