Carolyn E. Wright, an attorney whose blog about photographers' legal issues is a must read for professionals and serious amateurs, has brought to our attention the Shogo Digital Photo Frame--a technical marvel that uses Wi-Fi connectivity to let you access the Internet and directly upload and manage photo albums online so others can view your work on their photo frames. But Ms. Wright points out one little problem with the Shogo's online service, ShogoLive's terms of use: by uploading your photos, you've granted them "worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, errevocable, transferrable license" to your photos.
The terms of use goes on to say that ShogoLive may use your work basically any way it pleases, including creating new products with it, without any compensation to you.
The Shogo photo frame lets you view photos from portal sites such as Flickr, Picasa, .Mac, SmugMug and RSS feeds. Ms. Wright points out that Shogo needs a license to run your photographs through their system for their services to work, but the terms of use go far beyond what's required for that. "Sharing your photos can be wonderful," comments Wright on her blog,
PhotoAttorney. "Just be careful who you share them with."
