Off-Topic: Egyptian Photographer's Photos Censored On Flickr

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Friday, March 11th, 2011


Hossam el-Hamalawy, otherwise known as 3arabawy on Flickr, was the source for the image in my post on the Egyptian revolution. His Flickr stream is full of great photos from the streets, but just recently, after posting some pictures of Egyptian secret police accused of brutality, he’s been hit with a plainly fraudulent copyright takedown notice.

Out of gratitude for his excellent coverage of the revolution and allowing me to use his photo for my post, I wanted to give a little attention to this nonsense. There isn’t much we can do, but you can share your disappointment with Yahoo’s copyright division by emailing them, or tweet @Flickr telling them to get with the program.