Simon Woolf is one of my favourite people. One of our longest-standing clients and quite possibly the most energetic person I know (if you don't believe me check out his Facebook page). He sells beautiful landscapes from his shop in Wellington's Cable Car Lane – access way to one of Wellington's top tourist attractions. One day Simon saw a tourist photographing one of his landscapes through the display window, and posted about it on Facebook. "I asked her for a look, and she stated, 'It wasn't a bad copy but was a little light'. I then told her I was the photographer, and she was being a bit naughty! Her reply was that at least half a dozen other people queueing for the Cable Car had done the same thing!" It's not my image, of course, but, after coming up relatively clean on a quick internal audit, I appreciate his indignation – knowing Simon I'm sure it was good-humoured – but I don't really think there's a problem, for two reasons: 1. He's selling a relatively expensive product. If people are content with a photo of a photo (shot through glass) they're not his customers. Just like those people who're content with prints from your low-res web images. Nothing lost. And it says good things about the image! 2. In an online world there's no choice but to put at least some of your images, in some form, in harm's way. Call it paying it forward, or the price of online marketing. The people that don't buy are still marketing for you. Even via a crappy home inkjet print they pass around with your watermark on it. The challenge is how to monetise what you're giving away. Simon knows this, and practices it by the way. I wrote this hoping he'll comment ;) Cheers Ian