So here's a question for all of you, since I have not gone to any conventions other than Gen Con a couple of times and now SW Celebration for the first time.

Would you consider this rude or acceptable? A friend who was elsewhere during the convention takes some of your plethora of cosplay photos that you post to social media and then includes those photos in their own social media posts without mentioning who actually took the photos.

Would you care? Why or why not?

How is this about X-wing?

4 minutes ago, Kaptin Krunch said:

How is this about X-wing?

Because some of the photos were of X-Wing, and all of them were related to Star Wars, and most importantly, I have nowhere else to ask anonymously.

Seems fine. They’re excited about sharing a cool event. Unless you’re just fiercely jealous of updoots I don’t see why it would be a problem.

12 minutes ago, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

Because some of the photos were of X-Wing, and all of them were related to Star Wars, and most importantly, I have nowhere else to ask anonymously.

I think the post is meant more that the Off-Topic forum is the best location for this post, not main page.

Traction varies on whether this is an issue. I don't really care unless I'm getting paid to be a photographer, but a shout-out or an ask beforehand is always nice.

Having taken a ton of photos of strangers in cosplay at Celebration, I've grappled with this a bit.

A. I asked every single person if I could take their photo.

B. They are doing this at a public event, knowing that they would be photographed; hoping they would be photographed, I dare say. In fact, my wife said she would love at some point to Google "Ahsoka cosplay" and see a photo of herself come up.

C. I'm not a paid photographer and they are not a paid model.

D. The (unwritten) contract of social media is that things are going to be shared, and you don't need to reference the source.

E. So, since I was also in cosplay, I am not going to be upset if someone posts my photo.

Having said all that, I have basically chosen to not post any photos of strangers; only photos of me and my wife, or photos of folks that are anonymous (Vader, snowtroopers), out of a respect for some level of privacy.

But, in the case of the OP, I do think that (D.) applies. So, I might care a little, but I think you basically have to let it go.

Assuming you're not a professional photographer, this is still a bit weird that the person didn't just share the photos that they liked from your page, but my guess is that they were trying to wow their own acquaintances with one big "Here are all the awesome things I saw at Celebration!" post. Since you had the best cosplay pics, they took those. Yes, it was wrong.

Now, if this person is your friend, you probably just want to mention it in person when you see them. Something like, "Hey, I saw you copied some of my Celebration photos and posted them on your page. Next time it would be awesome if you could just share them from my page. I know, I know, weird Internet etiquette, but I'd really appreciate it. Thanks."

If this is just an acquaintance and you're losing sleep over it, I'd probably react in some passive aggressive way. You can do this by posting a comment on their album from Celebration like: "Oh! I see you took some of my cosplay pics and shared them! Cool!" See, using all those exclamation points says: "I'm a really friendly person, but I'm super pissed off!" The problem with this approach is that your friend already seems to be lacking certain social skills that make him sensitive to how he posts things, which probably means this will just go over his head.

In the end, you should probably just take advice from a different Disney property...