Photo Postings: Bloggers Beware

Access to and use of images has been a long-running debate in the royal blogosphere. It is particularly challenging for those of us who are operating our blogs without any remuneration (nearly everyone, yes?) For those commenting on current events and activities, very few free images are available.

A situation has arisen today with the popular Duchess Kate blog, whose administrator is concerned that she may have to shut down her blog after posting some photos and screenshots that were challenged by the copyright holders. The seriousness of this situation underscores the need to be very, very careful in your image selection, use, acknowledgement, etc. Copyright is a legal issue and you don't want to get yourself into a sticky situation. [Read Duchess Kate's post about the incident.]

I have encountered this issue in my professional world, wherein a cease-and-desist letter and the subsequent removal of unauthorized copyrighted material is usually sufficient to resolve the problem. However, better to be safe than sorry. 

Here are three quick guidelines and links from About.com to help you protect yourself from breaking copyright laws.

Follow @HRHDuchessKate on Twitter to participate in the ongoing conversation, or comment here with your views and advice.

The Media Loves Bloggers

When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge went on their first tour of Canada, the media sometimes got a little help from our intrepid royal bloggers. For instance:

The Globe and Mail cited the 'canny' insight of The Royal Order of Splendor and gave props to the unofficial tweets of @KateWilliam2011. View the story.

Catherine's wardrobe continued to garner attention and so did Catherine fashion experts @katepippastyle and @whatkatewore, who were both mentioned in The London Telegraph's coverage of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's tour of Canada. View the story.

In other blogger-media news, blogger and author Victoria Martinez (@tvmartinez) was interviewed on Blog Talk Radio's "Another Cup of Coffee and a Good Book" about her book, "An Unusual Journey Through Royal History," in July. Listen to the interview.

Royal Blog News, 17 June 2011

FIRSTS
This week, we added our first blog devoted to Prince Harry. There must be a billion such sites. Send them in and we'll add them to the list! In the mean time, enjoy HRH Prince Harry.

TUNE IN
Listen online June 26 to The Royal Report on Blog Talk Radio where one of the topics will be royal blogs. Host Marilyn Braun will discuss how the royal blogosphere has changed in the last year. You can even call in to chat with her. That number is 914-338-1829 in Canada. The Royal Report airs live Sunday evenings at 9 p.m. Eastern Time; that's 6 p.m. Pacific, 2 a.m. (Monday) Greenwich and 11 a.m. (Monday) in Sydney. You can also listen to archived episodes.

NAME CHANGES
The new blog Musings of a Royal Nature has changed its name to  Of a Royal Nature to avoid confusion with the blog Royal Musings.

Royal Blogger Alert: Tune In June 26

Listen online June 26 to The Royal Report on Blog Talk Radio where one of the topics will be royal blogs. Host Marilyn Braun will discuss how the royal blogosphere has changed in the last year. You can even call in to chat with her. That number is 914-338-1829 in Canada.

The Royal Report airs live Sunday evenings at 9 p.m. Eastern Time; that's 6 p.m. Pacific, 2 a.m. (Monday) Greenwich and 11 a.m. (Monday) in Sydney. You can also listen to archived episodes.

In addition to hosting The Royal Report, Braun runs the blog Marilyn's Royal Blog.

Note: I earlier posted that this episode would air on June 12. I apologize for the error.

Blogger Spotlight: Victoria Martinez

Blogger Victoria Martinez was interviewed on the book blog, A Cup of Coffee and a Good Book, on June 9 regarding her book, An Unusual Journey Through Royal History. [Read the interview.]

In the interview, Martinez describes the book as follows: "An Unusual Journey Through Royal History is not your typical royal history book. The table of contents reads more like a menu at a good restaurant, where there’s something for everyone’s taste. Each of the 18 chapters tells a unique story about an overlooked or unusual aspect of royal history, spanning centuries and countries, but in no particular order. From first to last, they will take you on a journey through royal history you’ve probably never seen or thought of before. Chances are, even readers who usually find historic royalty boring and stuffy or modern royalty anachronistic and detached will find something to enjoy."

Martinez is the author of the blog, Arbitrary History.

Latest Royal Blog News

Here's what's happening in Royal Blogs this week:

Royal Blog Central now indexes more than 40 blogs, sites and forums about royalty. If you need to be added, just send me the details at princessesreign@gmail.com. I'm adding sites as quickly as I can, but it is a bit of a haphazard effort. Also, if you are on Twitter, let me know and I will also add you to my Royal Bloggers list there. I want to include blogs in other languages, too. My goal is to make this blog a really comprehensive resource!

Thanks to everyone who has been tweeting (@palaceprincess) and e-mailing me with more sites to include. Happy blogging!

Bloggers on Facebook
About a month ago, a few of us launched a Facebook group for Royal Bloggers. Just send a request to join.


New Royal Blogs

Musings of a Royal Nature
A blog for lovers of all things Royal. Launched 7 June 2011.
I've decided my thirst for all things Royal cannot be simply satisfied by twitter any longer so in to the blogesphere I venture....... "


Observations

Gosh there are a lot of blogs specifically about Kate Middleton/The Duchess of Cambridge!

Also, so many blogs start with the word royal or royalty, it's really starting to challenge my alphabetizing skills! ;)

A Blog about Blogs

In the last few years, I have enjoyed reading many blogs and web sites about royals from around the world and getting to know the people behind them. As we continue to build an international community of royal bloggers and our followers, I wanted to create a central location where people could access all of the richness and variety available on the internet.

Through this blog, I hope to catalog, categorize and comment on blogs and web sites on a variety of royal topics both current and historical in as many languages as possible.

If you maintain a royal blog or web site--or you read one!--that's not included here, please send the URL to princessesreign@gmail.com.