Reblog Button and Images
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Howdy!
Following a recent conversation with a fellow blogger here on WordPress.com, I retested and found that the Reblog Button has reverted to again scoop up and transfer *all* the images in the original post to the reblogger’s Media Library, even if the images do not appear in the reblog itself. In such case, it’s possible that neither the original poster nor the reblogger are aware of this happening.
I also later discovered that *all the images* appear in the email notification of the reblog that is sent out to subscribers, but there it is not clear what the source of those images is, whether the original post or the reblogged post.
In addition to the Reblog Button, I tested the PressThis bookmarklet, the PressThis sharing button, the sharing button from the Reader front page and from the Android app Reader, and it’s only the Reblog Button where this behavior occurs.
The wholesale transference of all the original post images was addressed a number of years ago when the reblog feature was reintroduced as a feature on WordPress.com and, to the best of my knowledge, this feature was updated so that only the original post’s featured image was copied. Otherwise, there may be severe copyright repercussions for the reblogger.
I’d be glad for any insight and advice why the Reblog button behavior reverted and whether it will be updated.
Thanks.
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Hi @justjennifer,
Thank you for noticing and reporting this. I’ve reported it to our developers. When something changes I’ll update this thread.
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Thank you @fstat! I’ve also bookmarked the github repo you created for this https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/issues/60758
Just to clarify one point, I don’t suggest hotlinking all the original post images, only the featured image, which seems to be the case when sharing a post directly from the WPcom Reader in a web browser and also the Android mobile app (I don’t have an iOS device to test). And just noting that even that much might be problematic in some cases.
Looking forward to an update.
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Hi, further to Jen’s message regarding the reblog button, I am attaching a link to a guest post shared on my blog from a blogger who was threatened with legal action after reblogging a post that contained a copyrighted image protected.
I trust this will prove that the current setup of the reblog button needs urgent attention to avoid any legal action against bloggers who use it without knowing that they could be downloading copyrighted material.
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My additional 2¢/ While the Terms of Service permits us to share other WordPress.com bloggers content as long as we (paraphrasing) “use only a portion of a post and give credit to the original author by linking back to their website”, we users do not have any control over how the various WordPress.com sharing features execute this. Regardless of the feature used, WordPress.com official sharing should be done in a way that doesn’t leave its users open to possible litigation. /My additional 2¢
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