Harlan Ellison Gets It

Harlan Ellison gets it. I’ve been faced with the same argument repeatedly when some tight-fisted narcissistic piece of shit wants to steal my photos to promote their product. Even if they have a single hair on their ass and contact me first, they want it for free.

It's just a photo I could've taken.

OK, SO GO FUCKING TAKE IT YOU LILY LIVERED PIECE OF SHIT!

Don’t get me wrong. I give away usage rights to my photos all the time. I spend a lot of my photographic creative capital at the (automobile) race track. I regularly give my photos, sometimes prints but often full resolution digital images, to the competitors and their families to celebrate a good finish, a good day, a milestone met. I give my photos even more often to the local Sports Car Club of America region (the Atlanta Region.) They use them on their web site and in ads to promote both the region and amateur road racing. I directly gain from their promotional success, so it's in my best interest, from my perspective, to pay back the amateur racing community that way.

Then, here comes Monster Mega Amateur Road Racer magazine, and they want to use it on their web site, and their promotional materials. They want to promote their for-profit enterprise with the fruits of my creative capital. They want to enhance the circulation of their magazine and the value of a column inch of ad space therein. And they have the gall to call me greedy because I want to be paid for my efforts, skills, knowledge, vision, and luck. And they get all pissy when I tell them to shove it up their ass.

So, that shows you what sort of folks they are … they’re narcissist thieves … so self-involved that they don’t even realize they're perpetrating thievery.